Electronics and Environment

First Edition, 2011

ISBN 978-93-81157-15-2

© All rights reserved.

Published by: The English Press 4735/22 Prakashdeep Bldg, Ansari Road, Darya Ganj, Delhi - 110002 Email: [email protected] 

Table of Contents Chapter 1- Electronic Waste Chapter 2 - Electronic Waste by Country Chapter 3 - Plastic Recycling Chapter 4 - Computer Recycling Chapter 5 - Green Computing Chapter 6 - E-Cycling & Mobile Phone Recycling Chapter 7 - Battery Recycling

Chapter- 1

Electronic Waste

Defective and obsolete electronic equipment.

Electronic waste, e-waste, e-scrap, or Waste Electrical and Electronic Equipment (WEEE) describes loosely discarded, surplus, obsolete, or broken electrical or electronic devices. Environmental groups claim that the informal processing of electronic waste in developing countries causes serious health and pollution problems. Some electronic scrap components, such as CRTs, contain contaminants such as lead, cadmium, beryllium, mercury, and brominated flame retardants. Activists claim that even in developed countries recycling and disposal of e-waste may involve significant risk to workers and communities and great care must be taken to avoid unsafe exposure in recycling operations and leaching of material such as heavy metals from landfills and incinerator ashes. Scrap industry and USA EPA officials agree that materials should be managed with caution, but that environmental dangers of unused electronics have been exaggerated by groups which benefit from increased regulation.

Definitions "Electronic waste" may be defined as all secondary computers, entertainment device electronics, mobile phones, and other items such as television sets and refrigerators, whether sold, donated, or discarded by their original owners. This definition includes used electronics which are destined for reuse, resale, salvage, recycling, or disposal. Others define the re-usables (working and repairable electronics) and secondary scrap (copper, steel, plastic, etc.) to be "commodities", and reserve the term "waste" for residue or material which was represented as working or repairable but which is dumped or disposed or discarded by the buyer rather than recycled, including residue from reuse and recycling operations. Because loads of surplus electronics are frequently commingled (good, recyclable, and non-recyclable), several public policy advocates apply the term "ewaste" broadly to all surplus electronics. The United States Environmental Protection Agency (EPA) includes discarded CRT monitors in its category of "hazardous household waste". but considers CRTs set aside for testing to be commodities if they are not discarded, speculatively accumulated, or left unprotected from weather and other damage. Debate continues over the distinction between "commodity" and "waste" electronics definitions. Some exporters may deliberately leave difficult-to-spot obsolete or nonworking equipment mixed in loads of working equipment (through ignorance, or to avoid more costly treatment processes). Protectionists may broaden the definition of "waste" electronics. The high value of the computer recycling subset of electronic waste (working and reusable laptops, computers, and components like RAM) can help pay the cost of transportation for a large number of worthless "electronic commodities".

Problems Rapid changes in technology, low initial cost, and planned obsolescence have resulted in a fast-growing surplus of electronic waste around the globe. Dave Kruch, CEO of Cash For Laptops, regards electronic waste as a "rapidly expanding" issue. Technical solutions are available, but in most cases a legal framework, a collection system, logistics, and

other services need to be implemented before a technical solution can be applied. An estimated 50 million tons of E-waste is produced each year . The USA discards 30 million computers each year and 100 million phones are disposed of in Europe each year. The Environmental Protection Agency estimates that only 15-20% of e-waste is recycled, the rest of these electronics go directly into landfills and incinerators. In the United States, an estimated 70% of heavy metals in landfills comes from discarded electronics.

Global trade issues

Electronic waste is often exported to developing countries.

4.5-Volt, D, C, AA, AAA, 9-Volt, SR41/AG3, SR44/AG13 cells are all recyclable in most countries. Increased regulation of electronic waste and concern over the environmental harm which can result from toxic electronic waste has raised disposal costs. The regulation creates an economic disincentive to remove residues prior to export. Critics of trade in used electronics maintain that it is too easy for brokers calling themselves recyclers to export unscreened electronic waste to developing countries, such as China, India and parts of Africa, thus avoiding the expense of removing items like bad cathode ray tubes (the processing of which is expensive and difficult). The developing countries are becoming big dump yards of e-waste due to their weak laws. Proponents of international trade point to the success of fair trade programs in other industries, where cooperation has led creation of sustainable jobs, and can bring affordable technology in countries where repair and reuse rates are higher. Defenders of the trade in used electronics say that extraction of metals from virgin mining has also been shifted to developing countries. Hard-rock mining of copper, silver, gold and other materials extracted from electronics is considered far more environmentally damaging than the recycling of those materials. They also state that repair and reuse of computers and televisions has become a "lost art" in wealthier nations, and that refurbishing has traditionally been a path to development. South Korea, Taiwan, and southern China all excelled in finding "retained value" in used goods, and in some cases have set up billion-dollar industries in refurbishing used ink cartridges, single-use cameras, and working CRTs. Refurbishing has traditionally been a threat to established manufacturing, and simple protectionism explains some criticism of the trade. Works like "The Waste Makers" by Vance Packard explain some of the criticism of exports of working product, for example the ban on import of tested working Pentium 4 laptops to China, or the bans on export of used surplus working electronics by Japan. Opponents of surplus electronics exports argue that lower environmental and labor standards, cheap labor, and the relatively high value of recovered raw materials leads to a transfer of pollution-generating activities, such as burning of copper wire. In China, Malaysia, India, Kenya, and various African countries, electronic waste is being sent to these countries for processing, sometimes illegally. Many surplus laptops are routed to developing nations as "dumping grounds for e-waste". Because the United States has not ratified the Basel Convention or its Ban Amendment, and has no domestic laws forbidding the export of toxic waste, the Basel Action Network estimates that about 80% of the electronic waste directed to recycling in the U.S. does not get recycled there at all, but is put on container ships and sent to countries such as China. This figure is disputed as an exaggeration by the EPA, the Institute for Scrap Recycling Industries, and the World Reuse, Repair and Recycling Association. Independent research by Arizona State University showed that 87-88% of imported used computers had a higher value than the best value of the constituent materials they contained, and that "the official trade in endof-life computers is thus drive by reuse as opposed to recycling."

Guiyu in the Shantou region of China, Delhi and Bangalore in India as well as the Agbogbloshie site near Accra, Ghana have electronic waste processing areas. Uncontrolled burning, disassembly, and disposal can cause a variety of environmental problems such as groundwater contamination, atmospheric pollution, or even water pollution either by immediate discharge or due to surface runoff (especially near coastal areas), as well as health problems including occupational safety and health effects among those directly involved, due to the methods of processing the waste. Thousands of men, women, and children are employed in highly polluting, primitive recycling technologies, extracting the metals, toners, and plastics from computers and other electronic waste. Recent studies show that 7 out of 10 children in this region have too much lead in their blood. Proponents of the trade say growth of internet access is a stronger correlation to trade than poverty. Haiti is poor and closer to the port of New York than southeast Asia, but far more electronic waste is exported from New York to Asia than to Haiti. Thousands of men, women, and children are employed in reuse, refurbishing, repair, and remanufacturing, sustainable industries in decline in developed countries. It is held that denying developing nations access to used electronics denies them affordable products and internet access. Opponents of the trade argue that developing countries utilize methods that are more harmful and more wasteful. An expedient and prevalent method is simply to toss equipment onto an open fire, in order to melt plastics and to burn away unvaluable metals. This releases carcinogens and neurotoxins into the air, contributing to an acrid, lingering smog. These noxious fumes include dioxins and furans. Bonfire refuse can be disposed of quickly into drainage ditches or waterways feeding the ocean or local water supplies. In June 2008, a container of electronic waste, destined from the Port of Oakland in the U.S. to Sanshui District in mainland China, was intercepted in Hong Kong by Greenpeace. Concern over exports of electronic waste were raised in press reports in India, Ghana, Ivory Coast, and Nigeria.

E-waste management Recycling

Computer monitors are typically packed into low stacks on wooden pallets for recycling and then shrink-wrapped. Today the electronic waste recycling business is in all areas of the developed world a large and rapidly consolidating business. Electronic waste processing systems have matured in recent years, following increased regulatory, public, and commercial scrutiny, and a commensurate increase in entrepreneurial interest. Part of this evolution has involved greater diversion of electronic waste from energy-intensive downcycling processes (e.g., conventional recycling), where equipment is reverted to a raw material form. This diversion is achieved through reuse and refurbishing. The environmental and social benefits of reuse include diminished demand for new products and virgin raw materials (with their own environmental issues); larger quantities of pure water and electricity for associated manufacturing; less packaging per unit; availability of technology to wider swaths of society due to greater affordability of products; and diminished use of landfills. Audiovisual components, televisions, VCRs, stereo equipment, mobile phones, other handheld devices, and computer components contain valuable elements and substances suitable for reclamation, including lead, copper, and gold. One of the major challenges is recycling the printed circuit boards from the electronic wastes. The circuit boards contain such precious metals as gold, silver, platinum, etc. and such base metals as copper, iron, aluminum, etc. Conventional method employed is mechanical shredding and separation but the recycling efficiency is low. Alternative methods such as cryogenic decomposition have been studied for printed circuit board recycling, and some other methods are still under investigation.

Consumer awareness efforts •

AddressTheMess.com is a Comedy Central pro-social campaign that seeks to increase awareness of the dangers of electronic waste and to encourage recycling. Partners in the effort include Earth911.org, ECOInternational.com, and the U.S. Environmental Protection Agency. Many Comedy Central viewers are early adopters of new electronics, and produce a commensurate amount of waste that

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can be directed towards recycling efforts. The station is also taking steps to reduce its own environmental impact, in partnership with NativeEnergy.com, a company that specializes in renewable energy and carbon offsets. The Electronics TakeBack Coalition is a campaign aimed at protecting human health and limiting environmental effects where electronics are being produced, used, and discarded. The ETBC aims to place responsibility for disposal of technology products on electronic manufacturers and brand owners, primarily through community promotions and legal enforcement initiatives. It provides recommendations for consumer recycling and a list of recyclers judged environmentally responsible. The grassroots Silicon Valley Toxics Coalition (svtc.org) focuses on promoting human health and addresses environmental justice problems resulting from toxins in technologies. Basel Action Network (BAN.org) is uniquely focused on addressing global environmental injustices and economic inefficiency of global "toxic trade". It works for human rights and the environment by preventing disproportionate dumping on a large scale. It promotes sustainable solutions and attempts to ban waste trade. Texas Campaign for the Environment (texasenvironment.org) works to build grassroots support for e-waste recycling and uses community organizing to pressure electronics manufacturers and elected officials to enact producer takeback recycling policies and commit to responsible recycling programs. The World Reuse, Repair, and Recycling Association (wr3a.org) is an organization dedicated to improving the quality of exported electronics, encouraging better recycling standards in importing countries, and improving practices through "Fair Trade" principles. Take Back My TV is a project of The Electronics TakeBack Coalition and grades television manufacturers to find out which are responsible and which are not.

Processing techniques

Recycling the lead from batteries. In developed countries, electronic waste processing usually first involves dismantling the equipment into various parts (metal frames, power supplies, circuit boards, plastics), often by hand. The advantages of this process are the human's ability to recognize and save working and repairable parts, including chips, transistors, RAM, etc. The disadvantage is that the labor is often cheapest in countries with the lowest health and safety standards. In an alternative bulk system, a hopper conveys material for shredding into a sophisticated mechanical separator, with screening and granulating machines to separate constituent metal and plastic fractions, which are sold to smelters or plastics recyclers. Such recycling machinery is enclosed and employs a dust collection system. Most of the emissions are caught by scrubbers and screens. Magnets, eddy currents, and trommel screens are employed to separate glass, plastic, and ferrous and nonferrous metals, which can then be further separated at a smelter. Leaded glass from CRTs is reused in car batteries, ammunition, and lead wheel weights, or sold to foundries as a fluxing agent in processing raw lead ore. Copper, gold, palladium, silver, and tin are valuable metals sold to smelters for recycling. Hazardous smoke and gases are captured, contained, and treated to mitigate environmental threat. These methods allow for safe reclamation of all valuable computer construction materials. Hewlett-Packard product recycling solutions manager Renee St. Denis describes its process as: "We move them through giant shredders about 30 feet tall and it shreds everything into pieces about the size of a quarter. Once your disk drive is shredded into pieces about this big, it's hard to get the data off."

An ideal electronic waste recycling plant combines dismantling for component recovery with increased cost-effective processing of bulk electronic waste. Reuse is an option to recycling because it extends the lifespan of a device. Devices still need eventual recycling, but by allowing others to purchase used electronics, recycling can be postponed and value gained from device use.

Benefits of Recycling Recycling raw materials from end-of-life electronics is the most effective solution to the growing e-waste problem. Most electronic devices contain a variety of materials, including metals that can be recovered for future uses. By dismantling and providing reuse possibilities, intact natural resources are conserved and air and water pollution caused by hazardous disposal is avoided. Additionally, recycling reduces the amount of greenhouse gas emissions caused by the manufacturing of new products. It simply makes good sense and is efficient to recycle and to do our part to keep the environment green.

Electronic waste substances

Several sizes of button and coin cell with 2 9v batteries as a size comparison. Enlarge to see the button and coin cells’ size code markings. They are all recyclable in both the UK and Ireland since they contain toxic metals like lead, mercury and cadmium. Some computer components can be reused in assembling new computer products, while others are reduced to metals that can be reused in applications as varied as construction, flatware, and jewelry. Substances found in large quantities include epoxy resins, fiberglass, PCBs, PVC (polyvinyl chlorides), thermosetting plastics, lead, tin, copper, silicon, beryllium, carbon, iron and aluminium.

Elements found in small amounts include cadmium, mercury, and thallium. Elements found in trace amounts include americium, antimony, arsenic, barium, bismuth, boron, cobalt, europium, gallium, germanium, gold, indium, lithium, manganese, nickel, niobium, palladium, platinum, rhodium, ruthenium, selenium, silver, tantalum, terbium, thorium, titanium, vanadium, and yttrium. Almost all electronics contain lead and tin (as solder) and copper (as wire and printed circuit board tracks), though the use of lead-free solder is now spreading rapidly. The following are ordinary applications:

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Americium: smoke alarms (radioactive source). Mercury: fluorescent tubes (numerous applications), tilt switches (pinball games, mechanical doorbells, thermostats). Sulfur: lead-acid batteries. PBBs: Predecessor of PCBs. Also used as flame retardant. Banned from 19731977 on. PCBs: prior to ban, almost all 1930s–1970s equipment, including capacitors, transformers, wiring insulation, paints, inks, and flexible sealants. Banned during the 1980s. Cadmium: light-sensitive resistors, corrosion-resistant alloys for marine and aviation environments, nickel-cadmium batteries. Lead: solder, CRT monitor glass, lead-acid batteries, some formulations of PVC. A typical 15-inch cathode ray tube may contain 1.5 pounds of lead, but other CRTs have been estimated as having up to 8 pounds of lead. Beryllium oxide: filler in some thermal interface materials such as thermal grease used on heatsinks for CPUs and power transistors, magnetrons, X-ray-transparent ceramic windows, heat transfer fins in vacuum tubes, and gas lasers. Polyvinyl chloride Third most widely produced plastic, contains additional chemicals to change the chemical consistency of the product. Some of these additional chemicals called additives can leach out of vinyl products. Plasticizers that must be added to make PVC flexible have been additives of particular concern. Burning PVC in connection with humidity in the air creates Hydrogen Chloride (HCl), an acid.

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Tin: solder, coatings on component leads. Copper: copper wire, printed circuit board tracks, component leads. Aluminium: nearly all electronic goods using more than a few watts of power (heatsinks), electrolytic capacitors. Iron: steel chassis, cases, and fixings. Germanium: 1950s–1960s transistorized electronics (bipolar junction transistors). Silicon: glass, transistors, ICs, printed circuit boards.

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Nickel: nickel-cadmium batteries. Lithium: lithium-ion batteries. Zinc: plating for steel parts. Gold: connector plating, primarily in computer equipment.

Chapter- 2

Electronic Waste by Country

Electronic waste is often exported to developing countries. Electronic waste is becoming an increasing part of the waste stream and efforts are being made to recycle and reduce this waste.

Basel Convention

Nations that have signed and ratified, along with nations that have signed but have not ratified the agreement.

Nations that have signed and ratified, along with nations that have signed but have not ratified the agreement. The Basel Convention on the Control of Transboundary Movements of Hazardous Wastes and Their Disposal, usually known simply as the Basel Convention, is an international treaty that was designed to reduce the movements of hazardous waste between nations, and specifically to prevent transfer of hazardous waste from developed to less developed countries (LDCs). It does not, however, address the movement of radioactive waste. The Convention is also intended to minimize the amount and toxicity of wastes generated, to ensure their environmentally sound management as closely as possible to the source of generation, and to assist LDCs in environmentally sound management of the hazardous and other wastes they generate. The Convention was opened for signature on 22 March 1989, and entered into force on 5 May 1992. A list of parties to the Convention, and their ratification status, can be found on the Basel Secretariat's web page. Of the 175 parties to the Convention, only Afghanistan, Haiti, and the United States have signed the Convention but not yet ratified it.

History With the tightening of environmental laws (e.g., RCRA) in developed nations in the 1970s, disposal costs for hazardous waste rose dramatically. At the same time, globalization of shipping made transboundary movement of waste more accessible, and many LDCs were desperate for foreign currency. Consequently, the trade in hazardous waste, particularly to LDCs, grew rapidly. One of the incidents which led to the creation of the Basel Convention was the Khian Sea waste disposal incident, in which a ship carrying incinerator ash from the city of Philadelphia in the United States after having dumped half of its load on a beach in Haiti, was forced away where it sailed for many months, changing its name several times. Unable to unload the cargo in any port, the crew was believed to have dumped much of it at sea. Another is the 1988 Koko case in which 5 ships transported 8,000 barrels of hazardous waste from Italy to the small town of Koko in Nigeria in exchange for $100 monthly rent which was paid to a Nigerian for the use of his farmland. These practices have been deemed "Toxic Colonialism" by many developing countries. At its most recent meeting, November 27–December 1, 2006, the Conference of the Parties of the Basel Agreement focused on issues of electronic waste and the dismantling of ships. According to Maureen Walsh in "The global trade in hazardous wastes: domestic and international attempts to cope with a growing crisis in waste management" 42 Cath. U. Law Review 103 (1992), only around 4% of hazardous wastes that come from OECD countries are actually shipped across international borders. These wastes include, among others, chemical waste, radioactive waste, municipal solid waste, asbestos, incinerator ash, and old tires. Of internationally shipped waste that comes from developed countries, more than half is shipped for recovery and the remainder for final disposal. Increased trade in recyclable materials has led to an increase in a market for used products such as computers. This market is valued in billions of dollars. At issue is the distinction when used computers stop being a "commodity" and become a "waste".

Definition of hazardous waste

4.5-Volt, D, C, AA, AAA, 9-Volt, SR41/AG3, SR44/AG13 cells are all recyclable in most countries.

Several sizes of button and coin cell. 2 9v batteries were added as a size comparison.

Recyclable electronic materials. A waste will fall under the scope of the Convention if it is within the category of wastes listed in Annex I of the Convention and it does exhibit one of the hazardous characteristics contained in Annex III . In other words it must both be listed and contain a characteristic such as being explosive, flammable, toxic, or corrosive. The other way that a waste may fall under the scope of the Convention is if it is defined as or considered to be a hazardous waste under the laws of either the exporting country, the importing country, or and of the countries of transit. The definition of the term disposal is made in Article 2 al 4 and just refers to annex IV, which gives a list of operations which are understood as disposal or recovery. The examples of disposal are broad and include also recovery, recycling and reuse. Annex II lists other wastes such as household wastes and residue that comes from incinerating household waste. Radioactive waste that is covered under other international control systems and wastes from the normal operation of ships is not covered. Annex IX attempts to define "commodities" which are not considered wastes and which would be excluded.

Obligations

In addition to conditions on the import and export of the above wastes, there are stringent requirements for notice, consent and tracking for movement of wastes across national boundaries. It is of note that the Convention places a general prohibition on the exportation or importation of wastes between Parties and non-Parties. The exception to this rule is where the waste is subject to another treaty that does not take away from the Basel Convention. The United States is a notable non-Party to the Convention and has a number of such agreements for allowing the shipping of hazardous wastes to Basel Party countries. The OECD Council also has its own control system that governs the trans-boundary movement of hazardous materials between OECD member countries. This allows, among other things, the OECD countries to continue trading in wastes with countries like the United States that have not ratified the Basel Convention. Parties to the Convention must honor import bans of other Parties. Article 4 of the Basel Convention calls for an overall reduction of waste generation. By encouraging countries to keep wastes within their boundaries and as close as possible to its source of generation, the internal pressures should provide incentives for waste reduction and pollution prevention. The Convention states that illegal hazardous waste traffic is criminal but contains no enforcement provisions. According to Article 12, Parties are directed to adopt a protocol that establishes liability rules and procedures that are appropriate for damage that comes from the movement of hazardous waste across borders.

Basel Ban Amendment After the initial adoption of the Convention, some LDCs and environmental organizations argued that it did not go far enough. Many nations and NGOs argued for a total ban on shipment of all hazardous waste to LDCs. In particular, the original Convention did not prohibit waste exports to any location except Antarctica but merely required a notification and consent system known as "prior informed consent" or PIC. Further, many waste traders sought to exploit the good name of recycling and begin to justify all exports as moving to recycling destinations. Many believed a full ban was needed including exports for recycling. These concerns led to several regional waste trade bans, including the Bamako Convention. Lobbying at the 1995 Basel conference by LDCs, Greenpeace and key European countries such as Denmark, led to a decision to adopt the Basel Ban Amendment to the Basel Convention. Not yet in force, but considered morally binding by signatories, the Amendment prohibits the export of hazardous waste from a list of developed (mostly OECD) countries to developing countries. The Basel Ban applies to export for any reason, including recycling. An area of special concern for advocates of the Amendment

was the sale of ships for salvage, shipbreaking. The Ban Amendment was strenuously opposed by a number of industry groups as well as nations including Australia and Canada. The number of ratification for the entry-into force of the Ban Amendment is under debate: Amendments to the convention enter into force after ratification of "threefourths of the Parties who accepted them" [Art. 17.5]; so far, the Parties of the Basel Convention could not yet agree whether this would be three fourth of the Parties that were Party to the Basel Convention when the Ban was adopted, or three fourth of the current Parties of the Convention. The status of the amendment ratifications can be found on the Basel Secretariat's web page. The European Union fully implemented the Basel Ban in its Waste Shipment Regulation (EWSR), making it legally binding in all EU member states. Norway and Switzerland have similarly fully implemented the Basel Ban in their legislation. In the light of the blockage concerning the entry into force of the Ban amendment, Switzerland and Indonesia have launched a “Country-led Initiative” (CLI) to discuss in an informal manner a way forward to ensure that the transboundary movements of hazardous wastes, especially to developing countries and countries with economies in transition, do not lead to an unsound management of hazardous wastes. This discussion aims at identifying and finding solutions to the reasons why hazardous wastes are still brought to countries that are not able to treat them in a safe manner. It is hoped that the CLI will contribute to the realization of the objectives of the Ban Amendment. The Basel Convention's website informs about the progress of this initiative The Basel Convention on the Control of Transboundary Movements of Hazardous Wastes and Their Disposal, usually known simply as the Basel Convention, is an international treaty that was designed to reduce the movements of hazardous waste between nations, and specifically to prevent transfer of hazardous waste from developed to less developed countries Of the 172 parties to the Convention, Afghanistan, Haiti, and the United States have signed the Convention but have not yet ratified it

Government regulation The United Nations Conference on Trade and Development (UNCTAD) tends to support the repair and recycling trade. Mining to produce the same metals, to meet demand for finished products in the west, also occurs in the same countries, and UNCTAD has recommended that restrictions against recycling exports be balanced against the environmental costs of recovering those materials from mining. Hard rock mining produces 45% of all toxins produced by all industries in the United States. Greenpeace contends that residue problems are so significant that the exports of all used electronics should be banned.

Asia

Many Asian countries have legislated, or will do so, for electronic waste recycling. South Korea, Japan and Taiwan ensure manufacturer responsibility by demanding that they recycle 75% of their annual production.

China Electronic waste in China has gained world-wide attention as a serious environmental issue.

Guiyu Guiyu, China, in Guangdong Province is made up of four small villages. It is the location of the largest electronic waste (e-waste) site on earth, . China is believed to be the predominant recipient of the world's electronic waste, with a roughly estimated one million tons of electronic waste being shipped there per year, mostly from the United States, Canada, Japan, and South Korea. It arrives via container ships through the ports of Hong Kong or Pearl River Delta at Nanhai. From there it is trucked to informal e-waste processing centers such as Guiyu, which receives more e-waste than any other area in China. Guiyu began receiving e-waste around 1995, and today, there are an estimated 150,000 e-waste workers in Guiyu who labor to process the over 100 truckloads that are dumped into the 52 square kilometer area every day. Guiyu is appropriately nicknamed the "electronic graveyard"

Health impacts Many of the primitive recycling operations in Guiyu are toxic and dangerous to workers' health. 88% of workers suffer from neurological, respiratory or digestive abnormalities or skin diseases. Higher than average rates of miscarriage are also reported in the region. Workers use their bare hands to crack open electronics to strip away any parts that can be reused- including chips, or valuable metals such as gold, silver, etc. Workers also cook circuit boards to remove chips and solders, burn wires and other plastics to liberate metals such as copper, use highly corrosive and dangerous acid baths along the riverbanks to extract gold from the microchips, and sweep printer toner out of cartridges. Children are exposed to the dioxin-laden ash as the smoke billows around Guiyu, and finally settles on the area. The soil has been saturated with lead, chromium, tin, and other heavy metals. Discarded electronics lie in pools of toxins that leach into the groundwater, making it so polluted that the water is undrinkable. To remedy this, water must be trucked in from elsewhere. Lead levels in the river sediment are double European safety levels, according to the Basel Action Network. Lead in the blood of Guiyu's children is 88% higher than in the average child. Piles of ash and plastic waste sit on the ground beside rice paddies and dikes holding in the Lianjiang river. Guiyu is world's second most polluted spot, while Lake Karachay is world's first most polluted spot. "It was nightmarish: the air was so polluted that it was difficult for me to breathe at work." says Xu, who works to strip keyboards. "I was worried that my son might fall ill someday

because of the pollution" (REPEAT SOURCE). Even visitors to the city claim to still experience headaches and strange metallic tastes in the mouth. A recent study of the area evaluated the extent of heavy metal contamination from the site. Using dust samples, scientists analysed mean heavy metal concentrations in a Guiyu workshop and found that lead and copper were 371 and 115 times higher, respectively, than areas located 30 kilometres away. The same study revealed that sediment from the nearby Lianjiang River was found to be contaminated by polychlorinated byphenyls at a level three times greater than the guideline amount. Studies are under way to assess the extent to which chemicals like these magnify through bioaccumulation.

Environmental injustice/ Why Guiyu? American businessman Mark Dallura of Chase Electronics says: "I could care less where they (the electronics) go. My job is to make money" In the interest of business, e-waste follows the path of lowest costs and lowest standards. Because of this, the United States' priorities of gaining economic profit and protecting its citizens and environment come at a cost of the health and environment of Guiyu, among other popular export sites like Lagos, Nigeria. The economic incentives created by strict domestic regulation, nonexistent regulations in developing countries, and the ease of free trade brought about by globalization, force recyclers to export e-waste. It is estimated that shipping e-waste to China is ten times cheaper than keeping it in the US. (Source). Huang Xihua, vicedirector of the Environmental Protection Bureau in Guangdong explains: "the law is weakly implemented at lower levels (here) because it all depends on the awareness of the local leaders. If they receive no government funding, they have to resort to dirty industry: putting GDP growth ahead of the environment." The value of parts in discarded electronics provides an incentive for poverty-stricken citizens to migrate to Guiyu from other provinces to work in processing it. Even still, the average worker, adult or child, makes barely US $1.50 a day (17 cents an hour). The average workday is sixteen hours. This $1.50 is made by recovering the valuable metals and parts that are within the piles of discarded electronics. Even this relatively tiny profit is enough motivation for workers to risk their health for. "About 800 yuan ($100 US) for a laptop; 600 yuan ($75 US) for a desktop; 1000 yuan ($125 US) for a Xerox machine-- isn't that tempting?" processing worker Cao said.

Agriculture Once a rice village, the pollution has made Guiyu unable to produce crops for food and the water of the river undrinkable.

Media coverage Guiyu as an e-waste hub was first documented fully in December 2001 by the Basel Action Network, a non-profit organization which combats the practice of toxic waste export to developing countries in their report and documentary film entitled Exporting

Harm. The health and environmental issues exposed by this report and subsequent scientific studies have greatly concerned international organisations such as the Basel Action Network and later Greenpeace and the United Nations Environment Programme and the Basel Convention. Media documentation of Guiyu is tightly regulated by the Chinese government, for fear of exposure or legal action. For example, a November 2008 news story by 60 Minutes, a popular US TV news program, documented the illegal shipments of electronic waste from recyclers in the US to Guiyu. While taping part of the story on-site at an illegal recycling dump in Guiyu, representatives of the Chinese recyclers attempted without success to confiscate the footage from the 60 Minutes TV crew. . "They're afraid of being found out. This is smuggling. This is illegal," says Jim Puckett, founder of the Basel Action Network. "A lot of people are turning a blind eye here. And if somebody makes enough noise, they're afraid this is all going to dry up." Greenpeace has taken action against the environmental injustice of the situation in Guiyuusing different methods to raise awareness such as building a statue using e-waste collected from a site in Guiyu, or delivering a truckload of e-waste dumped in Guiyu back to Hewlett Packard headquarters. Greenpeace has been lobbying large consumer electronics companies to stop using toxic substances in their products, with varying degrees of effectiveness. Activism from the United States has become vital in the movement to halt the electronic waste dumping in Guiyu because of the citizens' lack of resources to organize and act themselves. As awareness spreads, many more journalists travel to the region, producing shocking photos and videos- for example, TIME magazine ran a feature issue on China's Electronic Waste Village using photographs only.

Clean up efforts Since 2007, conditions in Guiyu have changed little despite the efforts of the central government to crack down and enforce the long-standing e-waste import ban. Recent studies have revealed some of the highest levels of dioxin ever recorded. However, because of the work of activist groups and increasing awareness of the situation, there is hope for the site to be improved. "It can be done. Look at what happened with lead acid batteries. We discovered they were hazardous, new legislation enforced new ways of dealing with the batteries which led to an infrastructure being created. The key was making it easy for people and companies to participate. It took years to build. E-waste is going the same route. But attitudes have changed and we will get there," Mr. Houghton says. Zheng Songming, head of the Guiyu Township government has published a decree to ban burning electronics in fires and soaking them in sulfuric acid, and promises supervision and fines for violations. Over 800 coal-burning furnaces have been destroyed because of this ordinance, and most notably, air quality has returned to Level II, now technically acceptable for habitation. Guiyu in Guangdong Province is the location of the largest electronic waste site on earth.

Legislation

Chinese laws are primarily concerned with eliminating the import of e-waste. China has ratified the Basel Convention as well as the Basel Ban Amendment, officially banning the import of e-waste. In October 2008, The Chinese State Council also approved a “draft regulation on the management of electronic waste.” This regulation is intended to promote the continued use of resources through recycling and to monitor the end-of-life treatment of electronics. Under the new regulations, recycling of electronics by the consumer is mandated. It also requires the recycling of unnecessary materials discarded in the manufacturing process. Hong Kong’s Waste Disposal Ordinance bans the import of batteries and cathode rays. There is not currently legislation in place to bar the entrance of other electronics into the ports of Hong Kong. Chinese laws are primarily concerned with eliminating the import of e-waste. China has ratified the Basel Convention as well as the Basel Ban Amendment, officially banning the import of e-waste. In October 2008, The Chinese State Council also approved a “draft regulation on the management of electronic waste.” This regulation is intended to promote the continued use of resources through recycling and to monitor the end-of-life treatment of electronics. Under the new regulations, recycling of electronics by the consumer is mandated. It also requires the recycling of unnecessary materials discarded in the manufacturing process.

Japan Japan has been a leader in technological advances for decades and now they are among the leaders in creating ways to deal with the resulting waste. Since 1970, Japan has been treating the waste of electronic materials differently than other materials. They would hire specially trained workers to dismantle and recycle the material. Unfortunately, the cost grew too great to keep these workers around. Instead, electronic waste was treated as every other form of waste, and tossed into a giant landfill. Waste landfills are a huge problem for any country and in Japan it was no different. Recently, two laws have come in effect in Japan to reduce both the landfill problem and the electronic waste problem. The first law is the Law for the Promotion of Effective Utilization of Resources (LPUR). This law encourages manufacturers to voluntarily help with the recycling of goods and reducing the generation of the waste in general. The second law is the Law for the Recycling of Specified Kinds of Home Appliances (LRHA). This law imposes more obligations on the recycling efforts of both consumers and manufacturers of used home appliances. There are taxes that were instated after October, 2003 that made it so any computer purchased after that date had them. If a computer was purchased before that date, than those wanting to recycle their computer would pay a nominal fee to keep up with recycling costs. The utilization of electronic waste resources is around 50% currently and is growing. The LRHA states that consumers are responsible for the cost of recycling most home appliances. This includes transportation costs, and recycling fees. The consumers pay the

retailers who will pick it up and recycle it for them and the consumers pay the fees involved in that. In order to make this a somewhat fair system, if a consumer asks a retailer to take the used home appliance for any reason (most likely because they purchased a new appliance), the retailer is obligated to come pick it up. These retailers usually take it back to the manufacturer. The manufacturer is required to have a system in place to recycle this electronic waste, and this system must also maintain a certain percentage of utilization from these resources. There is a part of this process that is not regulated by the government. The process of acquiring a recycling facility and/or how the recycling is currently done. Manufacturers can hire anyone they want to create the facility and they can also recycle electronic waste in any way they deem possible. The only thing it must maintain is the amount of utilization from each material that comes into the facility. Unfortunately, this poses a problem because clearly the manufacturer wants to recycle the products in the cheapest way possible which leaves a lot of room for improvement.

Australia Electronic waste has been on the agenda of the Australian Federal Government since the mid 1990s. The Australian and New Zealand Environment and Conservation Council (now replaced by the Environment Protection and Heritage Council (EPHC)) was the first body to identify electrical and electronic waste as a concern. In 2002, the EPHC again declared that e-waste needed action. The Electrical Equipment Product Stewardship SubGroup examined the issue and decided that computer and television waste were 'wastes of concern'. Since that time the television and computer industry has been working with the EPHC to identify a suitable way to manage end-of-life televisions and computers. In November 2008 the EPHC committed to the development of a national solution to the issue of managing television and computer waste. This action culminated in the release of a package of documents designed to enable public consultation on the various options for managing end-of-life televisions and computers on 16 July 2009. The main document in the package is the Consultation Regulatory Impact Statement: Televisions and Computers. The paper canvasses various options for managing end-of-life units and analyses the costs and benefits of each. The Consultation Paper does not have a preferred option. The preferred option will be developed by government through the public consultation process prior to the next meeting of the EPHC on 5 November 2009 in Perth where State and Federal Minister will adopt a position. A series of public meetings were held in Adelaide, Perth, Sydney and Melbourne to receive feedback to the government's proposals. The meetings occurred in late July and early August 2009. Product Stewardship Product Stewardship Australia (PSA)is a not-for-profit organisation established by the television industry in Australia to lead the way in developing recycling programs for ewaste in Australia, particularly televisions. PSA works closely with both State and

Federal Governments along with other industry associations to advance product stewardship in Australia. PSA has contributed to the development of the Consultation Regulatory Impact Statement on Televisions and Computers.

Canada In February 2004, a fee similar to the one in California was added to the cost of purchasing new televisions, computers, and computer components in Alberta, the first of its kind in Canada. Saskatchewan also implemented an electronics recycling fee in February 2007, followed by British Columbia in August 2007, Nova Scotia in February 2008, and Ontario in April 2009. In 2007, Manitoba issued the Proposed Electrical and Electronic Equipment Stewardship Regulation by which the sale of regulated products is forbidden unless covered by the stewardship program. "Products covered under this legislation include TVs, computers, laptops, and scanners." Recycling regulation passed in Ontario in October 2004, requires producers to "either develop product stewardship plans or comply with a product stewardship program for specific products."

Europe Some European countries implemented laws prohibiting the disposal of electronic waste in landfills in the 1990s. "This created an e-waste processing industry in Europe.” In Switzerland, the first electronic waste recycling system was implemented in 1991, beginning with collection of old refrigerators. Over the years, all other electric and electronic devices were gradually been included in the system. Legislation followed in 1998, and since January 2005 it has been possible to return all electronic waste to the sales points and other collection points free of charge. There are two established producer responsibility organizations: SWICO, mainly handling information, communication, and organization technology, and SENS, responsible for electrical appliances. The total amount of recycled electronic waste exceeds 10 kg per capita per year. Additionally, the European Union has implemented several directives and regulations that place the responsibility for “recovery, reuse and recycling” on the manufacturer. The Waste Electrical and Electronic Equipment Directive (WEEE Directive), as it is often referred to, has now been transposed in national laws in all member countries of the European Union. It was designed to make equipment manufacturers financially or physically responsible for their equipment at the end of its life, under a policy known as Extended producer responsibility (EPR). "Users of electrical and electronic equipment from private households should have the possibility of returning WEEE at least free of charge", and manufacturers must dispose of it in an environmentally friendly manner, by ecological disposal, reuse, or refurbishment. EPR is seen as a useful policy as it internalizes the end-of-life costs and provided a competitive incentive for companies to design equipment with fewer costs and liabilities when it reached its end of life. However, the application of the WEEE Directive has been criticized for implementing the EPR concept in a collective manner, and thereby losing the competitive incentive of

individual manufacturers to be rewarded for their green design. Since August 13, 2005, electronics manufacturers have become financially responsible for compliance to the WEEE Directive. Under the directive, each country recycles at least 4 kg of electronic waste per capita per year. Furthermore, the Directive should “decrease e-waste and ewaste exports.” . In December 2008 a draft revision to the Directive proposed a marketbased goal of 65%, which is 22 kg per capita in the case of the United Kingdom. A decision on the proposed revisions could result in a new WEEE Directive by 2012. The Directive on the Restriction of the Use of Certain Hazardous Substances in Electrical and Electronic Equipment (2002/95/EC), commonly referred to as the Restriction of Hazardous Substances Directive (RoHS Directive), was also adopted in February 2003 by the European Union. The RoHS Directive took effect on July 1, 2006, and is required to be enforced and become law in each member state. This directive restricts the use of six hazardous materials in the manufacture of various types of electronic and electrical equipment. The Battery Directive enacted in 2006 regulates the manufacture, disposal and trade of batteries in the European Union.

New Zealand

An electronic waste stockpile in Christchurch (2004).

Electronic waste in New Zealand is an environmental issue being addressed by community and government initiatives.

Background In 2006 there was an estimated 3.4 million televisions, 3.3 million mobile phones, 1.9 million computers and monitors, and 600,000 laptops. In the same year a survey showed that two thirds of respondents were willing to pay for safe disposal of electronic waste such as televisions and computers. The remainder were unwilling to pay anything or were unsure. The survey also showed that 85% were willing to take items to a neighbourhood collection point.

eDay

Electronic waste being collected during eDay in Dunedin, 2008

The eDay logo.

eDay is an annual New Zealand initiative, started by Computer Access New Zealand (CANZ), aimed to raise awareness of the potential dangers associated with electronic waste and to offer the opportunity for such waste to be disposed of in an environmentally friendly fashion.

History

eDay in Dunedin, 2008 eDay was first held in Wellington in 2006, as a pilot sponsored by Dell, the event bought in 54 tonnes (120,000 lb) of old computers, mobile phones and other non-biodegradable electronic material. In 2007 the initiative was extended to cover 12 locations, which resulted in it becoming a national initiative, 946 tonnes (2,090,000 lb) were collected. eDay 2008 was held on October 4 and extended to 32 centres. In 2009 an estimated 966 tonnes (2,130,000 lb) was collected at 38 locations around the country.

Purpose The initiative was started to minimise the amount of electronic waste being disposed on in landfills, based on evidence from reports that there was an estimated 16 million electronic devices in use in New Zealand and that 1 million new devices were being introduced every year, the report found that the majority of these devices were being disposed in landfills rather than being recycled. A separate report found that half of New

Zealand schools did not recycle outdated and replaced equipment, opting instead to deposit it in landfills. When disposed in landfills there is a possibility of the harmful chemicals in the electronic equipment, such as mercury, lead and cadmium, contaminating groundwater and coming into contact with humans or animals, the toxins in the chemicals are capable of causing serious health issues, such as nervous system and brain damage. When recycled, the chemicals are disposed of safely and potentially valuable parts can be reused.

Initiative

In Christchurch, the 2009 event was held at the Canterbury Agricultural Park. On the day, drive-thru collection points are established and volunteers operate each centre. Businesses, schools and the public are encouraged to dispose of old computer hardware, mobile phones and printer cartridges. As well as collecting material, the initiative is also designed to increase awareness about the harmful effects of electronic waste.

Acclaim CANZ were awarded the New Zealand Ministry for the Environment 2008 Green Ribbon Award for Community action and involvement. In 2009 CANZ won the Outstanding Industry Initiative in the PricewaterhouseCoopers Hi-Tech Awards. eDay is a nationwide collection programme for electronic waste which started in 2006. A total of 54 tonnes was collected in the first year of operation and by 2009 this had risen to 946 tonnes.

Legislation New Zealand signed the Basel Convention in 1989 and ratified it in 1994. The Basel Convention is an international treaty to reduce the movements of hazardous waste between nations, and specifically to prevent transfer of hazardous waste from developed to less developed countries. Electronic waste can be of a type defined under the convention. It was not until 2006 that the first application was made for export of hazardous waste under the Basel Convention.

Government initiatives In 2010 the government put $750,000 towards the eDay event which is to be held in 40 different locations. Another $400,000 was allocated towards setting up collection depots and recycling centres around New Zealand.

United States

Computer monitors being packed for shipping. Electronic waste in the United States is being addressed with regulations at a state and federal level. Ninety percent of US e-waste is exported to China and Nigeria.

Legislation Federal

The United States Congress considers a number of electronic waste bills, including the National Computer Recycling Act introduced by Congressman Mike Thompson (D-CA). Meanwhile, the main federal law governing solid waste is the Resource Conservation and Recovery Act of 1976. It covers only CRTs, though state regulations may differ. There are also separate laws concerning battery disposal. Several trade organizations including the Consumer Electronics Association are lobbying for the implementation of comprehensive federal laws. On March 25, 2009, the House Science and Technology Committee approved funding for research on reducing electronic waste and mitigating environmental impact, regarded by sponsor Ralph Hall (R-TX) as the first federal bill to address electronic waste directly. On July 6, 2009, Senator Amy Klobuchar (D-MN) and Senator Kristen Gillibrand (D-NY) proposed the "Electronic Device Recycling Research and Development Act". Bill S.1397 not only focuses on stopping illegal e-waste dumping, but it also calls for sustainable design of electronic equipment as well as offers funding for research and development of more sustainable designs, which would reduce the amount of toxic waste and increase the reuse and recycling of electronic products. During Earth Day, April 22, 2009, two bills were passed by the House of Representatives: H.R. 1580 Electronic Device Recycling Research and Development Act, introduced by Rep. Bart Gordon on March 18, 2009, and H.R. 957 Green Energy Education Act, introduced by Rep. Michael McCaul (R-TX.) H.R. 1580 requires the Administration of Environmental Protection Agency (EPA) to give merit-based grants to consortia of universities, government labs and private industries to conduct research with the purpose of finding new approaches to recycling and reduction of hazardous materials in electronic devices and to "contribute to the professional development of scientists, engineers, and technicians in the field of electronic device manufacturing, design, refurnishing, and recycling." The bill will require the recipients of the grants to report every two years to Congress about the progress of their research, gaps in the advancement, risks and regulatory barriers that might hinder their progress. The Congressional Budget Office estimates that to put the bill in effect "would cost $10 million in 2010 and $80 million over the 2010-2014 period." The other billed passed, H.R. 957, authorizes the Department of Energy in partnership with the National Science Foundation to provide grants to Institutions of higher education to promote education and training for Engineers and Architects "in high energy and high-performance building design."

State A policy of "diversion from landfill" has driven legislation in many states requiring higher and higher volumes of electronic waste to be collected and processed separate from the solid waste stream. In 2001, Arkansas enacted the Arkansas Computer and Electronic Solid Waste Management Act, which requires that state agencies manage and sell surplus computer equipment, establishes a computer and electronics recycling fund, and authorizes the Department of Environmental Quality to regulate and/or ban the disposal of computer and electronic equipment in Arkansas landfills.

California was the first state to legislate around the issue of e-waste. It implemented a broader waste ban, with advance recovery fee funding in 2003. Electronic waste in California may neither be disposed of in a landfill nor be exported overseas. The 2003 Electronic Waste Recycling Act in California introduced an Electronic Waste Recycling Fee on all new monitors and televisions sold to cover the cost of recycling. The fee ranges from six to ten dollars. California went from only a handful of recyclers to over 60 within the state and over 600 collection sites. The amount of the fee depends on the size of the monitor; it was adjusted on July 1, 2005 in order to match the real cost of recycling. Cellphones are "considered hazardous waste" in California; many chemicals in cellphones leach from landfills into the groundwater system. Colorado legislation requires education programs that address its electronic waste problem. In 2004, Maine passed Maine Public Law 661, An Act to Protect Public Health and the Environment by Providing for a System of Shared Responsibility for the Safe Collection and Recycling of Electronic Waste. It necessitates that after 2006, computer manufacturers take responsibility for handling and recycling computer monitors, and pay the handling costs as well. Massachusetts was the first of the United States to make it illegal to dispose of CRTs in landfills in April 2000, most similar to the European disposal bans of the 1990s. Minnesota enacted a law making vendors responsible for the disposal of their branded electronics. Minnesota legislation also outlaws the dumping of cathode ray tubes in landfills. A law in the state of Washington took effect on January 1, 2009, requiring manufacturers of electronic goods to pay for recycling, and establishing a statewide network of collection points. The program, called E-Cycle Washington, is managed by the Department of Ecology and the Washington Materials Management & Financing Authority. On January 28, 2010, Arizona introduced HB 2614, a producer responsibility law modeled on the Oregon law that would have covered computers, laptops and TV monitors for recycling. However, it was withdrawn on January 10, 2010. As of 2008, 17 states have producer responsibility laws in some form. In all, 35 states have or are considering electronic waste recycling laws. Location

Arkansas

Date signed into law 2003

Legislation Arkansas Computer and Electronic Solid Waste Management Act

2003

Electronic Waste Recycling Act Cell Phone Takeback and Recycling Rechargeable Battery Takeback and Recycling

Colorado

July 2007

National Computer Recycling Act Cell Phone Takeback and Recycling Rechargeable Battery Takeback and Recycling

Connecticut

July 2007

CT Electronic Recycling Law

Hawaii

July 2008

Hawaii Electronic Device Recycling Program

Illinois

September 2008

Electronic Products Recycling and Reuse Act

Indiana

May 2009

Amendment to Indiana environmental law

Maine

2004

§1610. Electronic waste An Act To Protect Public Health and the Environment by Providing for a System of Shared Responsibility for the Safe Collection and Recycling of Electronic Waste

Maryland

2005

Maryland's Statewide Electronics Recycling Program

Michigan

May 2007

SB No. 897

Minnesota

December 2008

Minnesota’s Electronics Recycling Act

Missouri

June 2008

Manufacturer Responsibility and Consumer Convenience Equipment Collection and Recovery Act

New Jersey

December 2008

Act No. 394

New York City

April 2008, vetoed overrode by council May 2008

INT 728 INT 729

California

North Carolina

August 2007 amended to add TVs August 2008

S1492 (2007) H819 (2008 Amendment)]

Oklahoma

May 2008

Oklahoma Computer Equipment Recovery Act

Oregon

June 2007

House Bill 2626

Rhode Island

June 2008

Electronic Waste Prevention, Reuse, and Recycling Act

Texas

June 2007

House Bill 2714

Virginia

March 2008

Computer Recovery and Recycling Act.

Washington

March 2006

SB 6428

West Virginia

March 2008

SB 746

Wisconsin

October 2009

SB 107

Consumer recycling Consumer recycling options include donating equipment directly to organizations in need, sending devices directly back to their original manufacturers, or getting components to a convenient recycler or refurbisher.

Donation Consumer recycling includes a variety of donation options, such as charities which may offer tax benefits. The U.S. Environmental Protection Agency maintains a list of electronic recycling and donation options for American consumers. The National Cristina Foundation, Tech Soup (the Donate Hardware List), the Computer Takeback Campaign,and the National Technology Recycling Project provide resources for recycling. However, local recycling sites that do not process waste products on site, and consumers that throw electronics in the trash, still contribute to electronic waste.

Takeback Individuals looking for environmentally-friendly ways in which to dispose of electronics can find corporate electronic takeback and recycling programs across the country. Corporations nationwide have begun to offer low-cost to no-cost recycling, open to the public in most cases, and have opened centers nationally and in some cases internationally. Such programs frequently offer services to take back and recycle

electronics, including mobile phones, laptop and desktop computers, digital cameras, and home and auto electronics. Companies such as Staples, Toshiba, and Gateway offer takeback programs that provide monetary incentives for recyclable and/or working technologies. The Manufacturers Recycling Management Co. was founded by Panasonic, Sharp Corporation, and Toshiba to manage electronic waste branded by these manufacturers, including 750 tons of TVs, computers, audio equipment, faxes, and components in its first four months. Office Depot lets customers obtain "tech recycling" boxes for e-waste if not eligible for the EcoNEW tech trade-in program. Best Buy offers a similar program for products which were purchased at Best Buy. Exceptions exist in some states, which allow for the trade-in of electronics which were not purchased at Best Buy. Though helpful to both the environment and its citizens, there are some downsides to such programs. Many corporations offer services for a variety of electronic items, while their recycling centers are few in number. Recycling centers and takeback programs are available in many parts of the country, but the type and amount of equipment to be recycled tends to be limited. Some corporations, like Sony in its Take Back Recycling Program, provide recycling incentives but only accept up to five recycled items per day and only if they are that corporation's products. Sony also partners with the Waste Management Inc. Recycle America program and offers discounts and tradeup programs. Costco, which offers free shipping and handling for all recycled pieces of equipment, will only allow Costco club members to participate in their programs. Crutchfield Electronics offers its own gift cards in exchange for electronic waste, through Consumer Electronics Exchange. Hewlett-Packard has recycled over 750 million pounds of electronic waste globally, including hardware and print cartridges.

Lobbying Various organizations actively lobby government in order to address electronic waste issues. The major organisations are the Basel Action Network and the Silicon Valley Toxics Coalition.

Reuse Free Geek is a collectively run non-profit organization started in Portland, Oregon. It has two central goals: to reuse or recycle used computer equipment that might otherwise become hazardous waste, and to make computer technology more accessible to those who lack financial means or technical knowledge. ReCellular, Inc. and GreenCells are organizations that buy and resell used, refurbished or discontinued cell phones, to help reduce electronic waste.

Chapter- 3

Plastic Recycling

Plastic recycling is the process of recovering scrap or waste plastics and reprocessing the material into useful products, sometimes completely different in form from their original state. For instance, this could mean melting down soft drink bottles and then casting them as plastic chairs and tables. Typically a plastic is not recycled into the same type of plastic, and products made from recycled plastics are often not recyclable.

Challenges When compared to other materials like glass and metal materials, plastic polymers require greater processing to be recycled. Plastics have a low entropy of mixing, which is due to the high molecular weight of their large polymer chains. A macromolecule interacts with its environment along its entire length, so its enthalpy of mixing is large compared to that of an organic molecule with a similar structure. Heating alone is not enough to dissolve such a large molecule; because of this, plastics must often be of nearly identical composition in order to mix efficiently. When different types of plastics are melted together they tend to phase-separate, like oil and water, and set in these layers. The phase boundaries cause structural weakness in the resulting material, meaning that polymer blends are only useful in limited applications. Another barrier to recycling is the widespread use of dyes, fillers, and other additives in plastics. The polymer is generally too viscous to economically remove fillers, and would be damaged by many of the processes that could cheaply remove the added dyes. Additives are less widely used in beverage containers and plastic bags, allowing them to be recycled more frequently. The use of biodegradable plastics is increasing. If some of these get mixed in the other plastics for recycling, the reclaimed plastic is not recyclable because the variance in properties and melt temperatures.

Processes

Before recycling, plastics are sorted according to their resin identification code, a method of categorization of polymer types, which was developed by the Society of the Plastics Industry in 1988. Polyethylene terephthalate, commonly referred to as PET, for instance, has a resin code of 1. They are also often separated by colour. The plastic recyclables are then shredded. These shredded fragments then undergo processes to eliminate impurities like paper labels. This material is melted and often extruded into the form of pellets which are then used to manufacture other products.

Monomer recycling Many recycling challenges can be resolved by using a more elaborate monomer recycling process, in which a condensation polymer essentially undergoes the inverse of the polymerization reaction used to manufacture it. This yields the same mix of chemicals that formed the original polymer, which can be purified and used to synthesize new polymer chains of the same type. Du Pont opened a pilot plant of this type in Cape Fear, North Carolina, USA, to recycle PET by a process of methanolysis, but it closed the plant due to economic pressures.

Thermal depolymerization Another process involves the conversion of assorted polymers into petroleum by a much less precise thermal depolymerization process. Such a process would be able to accept almost any polymer or mix of polymers, including thermoset materials such as vulcanized rubber tires and the biopolymers in feathers and other agricultural waste. Like natural petroleum, the chemicals produced can be made into fuels as well as polymers. A pilot plant of this type exists in Carthage, Missouri, USA, using turkey waste as input material. Gasification is a similar process, but is not technically recycling since polymers are not likely to become the result.

Heat compression Yet another process that is gaining ground with startup companies (especially in Australia, United States and Japan) is heat compression. The heat compression process takes all unsorted, cleaned plastic in all forms, from soft plastic bags to hard industrial waste, and mixes the load in tumblers (large rotating drums resembling giant clothes dryers). The most obvious benefit to this method is the fact that all plastic is recyclable, not just matching forms. However, criticism rises from the energy costs of rotating the drums, and heating the post-melt pipes.

Other processes A process has also been developed in which many kinds of plastic can be used as a carbon source in the recycling of scrap steel.

Applications

PET Post-consumer polyethylenes are sorted into different color fractions, cleaned, and prepared for processing . This sorted post-consumer PET waste is crushed, chopped into flakes, pressed into bales, and offered for sale. One use for this recycled PET that has recently started to become popular is to create fabrics to be used in the clothing industry. The fabrics are created by spinning the PET flakes into thread and yarn. This is done just as easily as creating polyester from brand new PET. The recycled PET thread or yarn can be used either alone or together with other fibers to create a very wide variety of fabrics. Traditionally these fabrics were used to create strong, durable, rough, products, such as jackets, coat, shoes, bags, hats, and accessories. However, these fabrics are usually too rough on the skin and could cause irritation. Therefore, they usually are not used on any clothing that may irritate the skin, or where comfort is required . But in today's new eco-friendly world there has been more of a demand for “green” products. As a result, many clothing companies have started looking for ways to take advantage of this new market and new innovations in the use of recycled PET fabric are beginning to develop. These innovations included different ways to process the fabric, to use the fabric, or blend the fabric with other materials . Some of the fabrics that are leading the industry in these innovations include Billabong's EcoSupreme Suede , Livity's Rip-Tide III , Wellman Inc's Eco-fi(formerly known as EcoSpun) , and Reware's Rewoven . Some additional companies that take pride in using recycled PET in their products are Crazy Shirts and Playback .

PVC PVC- or Vinyl Recycling has historically been difficult to perfect on the industrial scale. But within the last decade several viable methods for recycling or upcycling PVC plastic have been developed.

HDPE The most-often recycled plastic , HDPE or number 2, is downcycled into plastic lumber, tables, roadside curbs, benches, truck cargo liners, trash receptacles, stationery (e.g. rulers) and other durable plastic products and is usually in demand.

Other plastics The white plastic foam peanuts used as packing material are often accepted by shipping stores for reuse. Successful trials in Israel have shown that plastic films recovered from mixed municipal waste streams can be recycled into useful household products such as buckets. Similarly, agricultural plastics such as mulch film, drip tape and silage bags are being diverted from the waste stream and successfully recycled into much larger products for

industrial applications such as plastic composite railroad ties. Historically, these agricultural plastics have primarily been either landfilled or burned on-site in the fields of individual farms. CNN reports that Dr. S. Madhu of the Kerala Highway Research Institute, India has formulated a road surface that includes recycled plastic. Aggregate, bitumen (asphalt) with plastic that has been shredded and melted at a temperature below 220 degrees C (428 °F) to avoid pollution. This road surface is claimed to be very durable and monsoon rain resistant. The plastic is sorted by hand, which is economical in India. The test road used 60 kg of plastic for an approx. 500m long, 8m wide, two-lane road.

Financial justification In 2008, the price of PET dropped from $370/ton in the US to $20 in November. . PET prices had returned to their long term averages by May of 2009.

Recycling rates Plastic recycling rates lag far behind those of other items, such as newspaper (about 80%) and corrugated fiberboard (about 70%). All plastic bottles were recycled at a rate of 24% in 2005. The quantity of post-consumer plastics recycled has increased every year since at least 1990. In 2006 the amount of plastic bottles recycled reached a record high of 2.2 trillion pounds. The amount of PET bottles recycled in 2006 increased more than 102 million pounds compared to 2005. HDPE bottle recycling increased in 2005 to 928 million pounds.

Consumer education United States Low national plastic recycling rates have been due to the complexity of sorting and processing, unfavorable economics, and consumer confusion about which plastics can actually be recycled. Part of the confusion has been due to the recycling symbol that is usually on all plastic items . This symbol is called a resin identification code. It is stamped or printed on the bottom of containers and surrounded by a triangle of arrows. The intent of these arrows was to make it easier to identify plastics for recycling. The recycling symbol doesn’t necessarily mean that the item will be accepted by residential recycling programs.

United Kingdom In the UK, the amount of post-consumer plastic being recycled is relatively low , due in part to a lack of recycling facilities.

The Plastics 2020 Challenge was founded in 2009 by the plastics industry with the aim of engaging the British public in a nationwide debate about the use, reuse and disposal of plastics, hosts a series of online debates on its website framed around the waste hierarchy.

Plastic identification code Seven groups of plastic polymers, each with specific properties, are used worldwide for packaging applications (see table below). Each group of plastic polymer can be identified by its Plastic Identification code (PIC) - usually a number or a letter abbreviation. For instance, Low-Density Polyethylene can be identified by the number 4 and/or the letters "LDPE". The PIC appears inside a three-chasing arrow recycling symbol. The symbol is used to indicate whether the plastic can be recycled into new products. The PIC was introduced by the Society of the Plastics Industry, Inc. which provides a uniform system for the identification of different polymer types and helps recycling companies to separate different plastics for reprocessing. Manufacturers of plastic products are required to use PIC labels in some countries/regions and can voluntarily mark their products with the PIC where there are no requirements. Consumers can identify the plastic types based on the codes usually found at the base or at the side of the plastic products, including food/chemical packaging and containers. The PIC is usually not present on packaging films, as it is not practical to collect and recycle most of this type of waste. Plastic Type of plastic Identification polymer Code

Properties

Common Packaging Applications

Polyethylene terephthalate (PET, PETE)

Clarity, strength, toughness, barrier to gas and moisture.

Soft drink, water and salad dressing bottles; peanut butter and jam jars

High-density polyethylene (HDPE)

Stiffness, strength, toughness, resistance to moisture, permeability to gas.

Water pipes, Hula-Hoop (children's game) rings, Milk, juice and water bottles; the occasional shampoo / toiletry bottle

Versatility, clarity, ease of Polyvinyl blending, chloride (PVC) strength, toughness.

Juice bottles; cling films; PVC piping

Low-density polyethylene (LDPE)

Ease of processing, strength, toughness, flexibility, ease of sealing, barrier to moisture.

Strength, toughness, resistance to heat, Polypropylene chemicals, grease (PP) and oil, versatile, barrier to moisture.

Frozen food bags; squeezable bottles, e.g. honey, mustard; cling films; flexible container lids. Reusable microwaveable ware; kitchenware; yogurt containers; margarine tubs; microwaveable disposable take-away containers; disposable cups; plates.

Polystyrene (PS)

Versatility, clarity, easily formed

Egg cartons; packing peanuts; disposable cups, plates, trays and cutlery; disposable takeaway containers;

Other (often polycarbonate or ABS)

Dependent on polymers or combination of polymers

Beverage bottles; baby milk bottles; electronic casing.

Chapter- 4

Computer Recycling

Computer monitors are typically packed into low stacks on wooden pallets for recycling and then shrink-wrapped. Computer recycling or Electronic recycling is the recycling or reuse of computers or other electronics. It includes both finding another use for materials (such as donation to charity), and having systems dismantled in a manner that allows for the safe extraction of the constituent materials for reuse in other products.

Reasons for recycling Obsolete computers or other electronics are a valuable source for secondary raw materials, if treated properly; if not treated properly, they are a source of toxins and carcinogens. Rapid technology change, low initial cost, and even planned obsolescence have resulted in a fast-growing surplus of computer or other electronic components around the globe. Technical solutions are available, but in most cases a legal framework, a collection system, logistics, and other services need to be implemented before a technical solution can be applied. According to the U.S. Environmental Protection Agency, an estimated 30 to 40 million surplus PCs, which it classifies under the term "hazardous household waste", will be ready for end-of-life management in each of the

next few years. The U.S. National Safety Council estimates that 75% of all personal computers ever sold are now surplus electronics. In 2007, the United States Environmental Protection Agency (EPA) said that more than 63 million computers in the U.S. were traded in for replacements—or they simply were discarded. Today 15 percent of electronic devices and equipment are recycled in the United States. Most electronic waste is sent to landfills or becomes incinerated, having a negative impact on the environment by releasing materials such as lead, mercury, or cadmium into the soil, groundwater, and atmosphere. Many materials used in the construction of computer hardware can be recovered in the recycling process for use in future production. Reuse of tin, silicon, iron, aluminum, and a variety of plastics — all present in bulk in computers or other electronics — can reduce the costs of constructing new systems. In addition, components frequently contain copper, gold, and other materials valuable enough to reclaim in their own right.

Dismantled Sony Vaio PCG-982L and Compaq JBL Professional laptops. Computer components contain valuable elements and substances suitable for reclamation, including lead, copper, and gold. They also contain many toxic substances, such as dioxins, polychlorinated biphenyls (PCBs), cadmium, chromium, radioactive isotopes, and mercury. A typical computer monitor may contain more than 6% lead by weight,

much of which is in the lead glass of the cathode ray tube (CRT). A typical 15-inch computer monitor may contain 1.5 pounds of lead, but other monitors have been estimated as having up to 8 pounds of lead. Circuit boards contain considerable quantities of lead-tin solders and are even more likely to leach into groundwater or to create air pollution via incineration. Additionally, the processing required to reclaim the precious substances (including incineration and acid treatments) may release, generate, and synthesize further toxic byproducts. A major computer or electronic recycling concern is export of waste to countries with lower environmental standards. Companies may find it cost-effective in the short term to sell outdated computers to less developed countries with lax regulations. It is commonly believed that a majority of surplus laptops are routed to developing nations as "dumping grounds for e-waste". The high value of working and reusable laptops, computers, and components (e.g., RAM) can help pay the cost of transportation for a large number of worthless "commodities". Broken monitors, obsolete circuit boards, and short-circuited transistors are difficult to spot in a containerload of used electronics.

Regulations

An abandoned Texan monitor.

Europe In Switzerland, the first electronic waste recycling system was implemented in 1991, beginning with collection of old refrigerators; over the years, all other electric and electronic devices were gradually added to the system. The established producer responsibility organization is SWICO, mainly handling information, communication, and organization technology. The European Union implemented a similar system in February 2003, under the Waste Electrical and Electronic Equipment Directive (WEEE Directive, 2002/96/EC).

United States

Federal The United States Congress considers a number of electronic waste bills, including the National Computer Recycling Act introduced by Congressman Mike Thompson (D-CA). Meanwhile, the main federal law governing solid waste is the Resource Conservation and Recovery Act of 1976. It covers only CRTs, though state regulations may differ. There are also separate laws concerning battery disposal. On March 25, 2009, the House Science and Technology Committee approved funding for research on reducing electronic waste and mitigating environmental impact, regarded by sponsor Ralph Hall (R-TX) as the first federal bill to address electronic waste directly.

State Many states have introduced legislation concerning recycling and reuse of computers or computer parts or other electronics. Most American computer recycling legislation addresses it from within the larger electronic waste issue. In 2001, Arkansas enacted the Arkansas Computer and Electronic Solid Waste Management Act, which requires that state agencies manage and sell surplus computer equipment, establishes a computer and electronics recycling fund, and authorizes the Department of Environmental Quality to regulate and/or ban the disposal of computer and electronic equipment in Arkansas landfills. The recently passed Electronic Device Recycling Research and Development Act distributes grants to universities, government labs, and private industry for research in developing projects in line with e-waste recycling and refurbishment.

Asia South Korea, Japan, and Taiwan require that sellers and manufacturers of electronics be responsible for recycling 75% of them.

Recycling methods

Computers being collected for recycling at a pickup event in Olympia, Washington, United States.

Consumer recycling Consumer recycling options include donating computers directly to organizations in need, sending devices directly back to their original manufacturers, or getting components to a convenient recycler or refurbisher. The Computer Takeback Campaign and the Tech Soup Donate Hardware List are resources for locating recyclers and refurbishers.

Donation Consumer recycling includes a variety of donation options, such as charities which may offer tax benefits. The U.S. Environmental Protection Agency maintains a list of donation options for American consumers.

Takeback When researching computer companies before a computer purchase, consumers can also find out if they offer recycling services. Most major computer manufacturers offer some

form of recycling. At the user's request they may mail in their old computers, or arrange for pickup from the manufacturer. Hewlett-Packard also offers free recycling, but only one of its "national" recycling programs is available nationally, rather than in one or two specific states. HewlettPackard also offers to pick up any computer product of any brand for a fee, and to offer a coupon against the purchase of future computers or components; it was the largest computer recycler in America in 2003, and it has recycled over 750 million pounds of electronic waste globally since 1995. It encourages the shared approach of collection points for consumers and recyclers to meet.

Exchange Manufacturers often offer a free replacement service when purchasing a new PC. Dell Computers and Apple Inc. will take back old products when one buys a new one. Both refurbish and resell their own computers with a one-year warranty. Many companies purchase and recycle all brands of working and broken laptops and notebook computers, whether from individuals or corporations. Building a market for recycling of desktop computers has proven more difficult than exchange programs for laptops, smartphones, and other smaller electronics. A basic business model is to provide a seller an instant online quote based on laptop characteristics, then to send a shipping label and prepaid box to the seller, to erase, reformat, and process the laptop, and to pay rapidly by check. A majority of these companies are also generalized electronic waste recyclers as well; organizations that recycle computers exclusively include Cash For Laptops, a laptop refurbisher in Nevada that claims to be the first to buy laptops online, in 2001. Online auction at eBay is an alternative for consumers willing to resell for cash less fees, in a complicated, self-managed, competitive environment where paid listings might not sell. Craigslist can be similarly risky due to forgery scams and uncertainty.

Bulk laptops at a recycling affiliate, broken down into Dell, Gateway Computers, Hewlett-Packard, Sony, and other.

Corporate recycling Businesses seeking a cost-effective way to recycle large amounts of computer equipment responsibly face a more complicated process. They also have the option of contacting the manufacturers and arranging recycling options. However, in cases where the computer equipment comes from a wide variety of manufacturers, it may be more efficient to hire a third-party contractor to handle the recycling arrangements.

Early pioneering efforts to e-waste The first major publication to report the recycling of computers and electronic waste was published on the front page of the New York Times on April 14, 1993 by columnist Steve Lohr. Professional IT Asset Disposition (ITAD) firms specialize in corporate computer disposal and recycling services in compliance with local laws and regulations and also offer secure data elimination services that comply with data erasure standards. Companies that specialize in data protection and green disposal processes dispose of both data and used equipment while at the same time employing strict procedures to help improve the

environment. Some companies will pick up unwanted equipment from businesses, wipe the data clean from the systems, and provide an estimate of the product’s remaining value. For unwanted items that still have value, these firms will buy the excess IT hardware and sell refurbished products to those seeking more affordable options than buying new. Corporations face risks both for incompletely destroyed data and for improperly disposed computers, and according to the Resource Conservation and Recovery Act, are liable for compliance with regulations even if the recycling process is outsourced. Companies can mitigate these risks by requiring waivers of liability, audit trails, certificates of data destruction, signed confidentiality agreements, and random audits of information security. The National Association of Information Destruction is an international trade association for data destruction providers.

Data security Data security is an important part of computer recycling. Federal regulations mandate that there are no information security leaks in the lifecycle of secure data; this includes its destruction and recycling. There are a number of federal laws and regulations, including HIPAA, Sarbanes-Oxley, FACTA, GLB, which govern the data lifecycle and require that establishments with high and low-profile data keep their data secure.Recycling computers can be dangerous when handling sensitive data, specifically to businesses storing tax records or employee information. While most people will try to wipe their hard drives clean before disposing of their old computers, only 5 percent rely on an industry specialist or a third party to completely clean the system before it's disposed of according to an IBM survey. Industry standards recommend a 3X overwriting process for complete protection against retrieving confidential information. This means a hard drive must be wiped three times in order to ensure the data cannot be retrieved and possibly used by others.

Reasons to destroy and recycle securely There are ways to ensure that not only hardware is destroyed but also the private data on the hard drive. Having customer data stolen, lost, or misplaced contributes to the ever growing number of people who are affected by identity theft, which can cause corporations to lose more than just money. The image of a company that holds secure data, such as banks, pharmaceuticals, and credit corporations is also at risk. If a company’s public image is hurt that could cause consumers to not use their services and could cost millions in business losses and positive public relation campaigns. The cost of data breaches "var[ies] widely ranging $90 to $305 per customer record, depending on whether the breach is “low-profile” or “high-profile” and the company is in a nonregulated or highly regulated area, such as banking.” There is also a major backlash from the consumer if there is a data breach in a company that is supposed to be trusted to protect their private information.

Secure recycling

There are regulations that monitor the data security on end-of-life hardware. National Association for Information Destruction (NAID) “is the international trade association for companies providing information destruction services. Suppliers of products, equipment and services to destruction companies are also eligible for membership. NAID's mission is to promote the information destruction industry and the standards and ethics of its member companies.” There are companies that follow the guidelines from NAID and also meet all Federal EPA and local DEP regulations. The typical process for computer recycling aims to securely destroy hard drives while still recycling the byproduct. A typical process for effective computer recycling accomplishes the following: 1. 2. 3. 4. 5.

Receive hardware for destruction in locked and securely transported vehicles Shred hard drives Separate all aluminum from the waste metals with an electromagnet Collect and securely deliver the shredded remains to an aluminum recycling plant Mold the remaining hard drive parts into aluminum ingots

Chapter- 5

Green Computing

Green computing or green IT, refers to environmentally sustainable computing or IT. In Harnessing Green IT: Principles and Practices, San Murugesan defines the field of green computing as "the study and practice of designing, manufacturing, using, and disposing of computers, servers, and associated subsystems—such as monitors, printers, storage devices, and networking and communications systems—efficiently and effectively with minimal or no impact on the environment." The goals of green computing are similar to green chemistry; reduce the use of hazardous materials, maximize energy efficiency during the product's lifetime, and promote the recyclability or biodegradability of defunct products and factory waste. Research continues into key areas such as making the use of computers as energy-efficient as possible, and designing algorithms and systems for efficiency-related computer technologies.

Origins In 1992, the U.S. Environmental Protection Agency launched Energy Star, a voluntary labeling program which is designed to promote and recognize energy-efficiency in monitors, climate control equipment, and other technologies. This resulted in the widespread adoption of sleep mode among consumer electronics. The term "green computing" was probably coined shortly after the Energy Star program began; there are several USENET posts dating back to 1992 which use the term in this manner. Concurrently, the Swedish organization TCO Development launched the TCO Certification program to promote low magnetic and electrical emissions from CRT-based computer displays; this program was later expanded to include criteria on energy consumption, ergonomics, and the use of hazardous materials in construction.

Regulations and industry initiatives The Organisation for Economic Co-operation and Development (OECD) has published a survey of over 90 government and industry initiatives on "Green ICTs", i.e. information and communication technologies, the environment and climate change. The report concludes that initiatives tend to concentrate on the greening ICTs themselves rather than

on their actual implementation to tackle global warming and environmental degradation. In general, only 20% of initiatives have measurable targets, with government programs tending to include targets more frequently than business associations.

Government Many governmental agencies have continued to implement standards and regulations that encourage green computing. The Energy Star program was revised in October 2006 to include stricter efficiency requirements for computer equipment, along with a tiered ranking system for approved products. Some efforts place responsibility on the manufacturer to dispose of the equipment themselves after it is no longer needed; this is called the extended producer responsibility

model. The European Union's directives 2002/95/EC (Restriction of Hazardous Substances Directive), on the reduction of hazardous substances, and 2002/96/EC (Waste Electrical and Electronic Equipment Directive) on waste electrical and electronic equipment required the substitution of heavy metals and flame retardants like Polybrominated biphenyl and Polybrominated diphenyl ethers in all electronic equipment put on the market starting on July 1, 2006. The directives placed responsibility on manufacturers for the gathering and recycling of old equipment. There are currently 26 US States that have established state-wide recycling programs for obsolete computers and consumer electronics equipment. The statutes either impose an "advance recovery fee" for each unit sold at retail, or require the manufacturers to reclaim the equipment at disposal. In 2009 the American Recovery and Reinvestment Act (AARA) was signed into legislation by President Obama. The Bill allocated over $70 billion to be invested in green initiatives (renewable energy, smart grids, energy efficiency, etc…) In January 2010 the U.S. Energy Department granted $47 million dollars of the AARA money towards projects that aim to improve the energy efficiency of data centers. The projects will provide research on the following three areas; optimize data center hardware and software, improve power supply chain, and data center cooling technologies.

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Climate Savers Computing Initiative (CSCI) is an effort to reduce the electric power consumption of PCs in active and inactive states. The CSCI provides a catalog of green products from its member organizations, and information for reducing PC power consumption. It was started on 2007-06-12. The name stems from the World Wildlife Fund's Climate Savers program, which was launched in 1999. The WWF is also a member of the Computing Initiative. The Green Electronics Council offers the Electronic Product Environmental Assessment Tool (EPEAT) to assist in the purchase of "greener" computing systems. The Council evaluates computing equipment on 51 criteria - 23 required and 28 optional - that measure a product's efficiency and sustainability attributes. Products are rated Gold, Silver or Bronze depending on how many optional criteria they meet. On 2007-01-24, President George W. Bush issued Executive Order 13423, which requires all United States Federal agencies to use EPEAT when purchasing computer systems. The Green Grid is a global consortium dedicated to advancing energy efficiency in data centers and business computing ecosystems. It was founded in February 2007 by several key companies in the industry – AMD, APC, Dell, HP, IBM, Intel, Microsoft, Rackable Systems, SprayCool, Sun Microsystems and VMware. The Green Grid has since grown to hundreds of members, including end users and government organizations, all focused on improving data center efficiency. The Green500 list rates supercomputers by energy efficiency (megaflops/watt, encouraging a focus on efficiency rather than absolute performance.

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Green Comm Challenge is an organization that promotes the development of energy conservation technology and practices in the field of Information and Communications Technology (ICT). Green Comm Challenge achieved worldwide notoriety in 2007, when it enlisted as one of the challengers in the 33rd edition of the America's Cup, an effort meant to show how researchers, technologists and entrepreneurs from around the world can be brought together by an exciting vision: building the ultimate renewable energy machine, a competitive America’s Cup boat. The Transaction Processing Performance Council(TPC) Energy specification augments the existing TPC benchmarks by allowing for optional publications of energy metrics alongside their performance results. The SPEC Power is the first industry standard benchmark that measures power consumption in relation to performance for server-class computers.

Approaches to green computing In Harnessing Green IT: Principles and Practices, San Murugesan defines the field of green computing as "the study and practice of designing, manufacturing, using, and disposing of computers, servers, and associated subsystems—such as monitors, printers, storage devices, and networking and communications systems—efficiently and effectively with minimal or no impact on the environment." Murugesan lays out four paths along which he believes the environmental effects of computing should be addressed: Green use, green disposal, green design, and green manufacturing. Modern IT systems rely upon a complicated mix of people, networks and hardware; as such, a green computing initiative must cover all of these areas as well. A solution may also need to address end user satisfaction, management restructuring, regulatory compliance, and return on investment (ROI). There are also considerable fiscal motivations for companies to take control of their own power consumption; "of the power management tools available, one of the most powerful may still be simple, plain, common sense."

Product longevity Gartner maintains that the PC manufacturing process accounts for 70 % of the natural resources used in the life cycle of a PC. Therefore, the biggest contribution to green computing usually is to prolong the equipment's lifetime. Another report from Gartner recommends to "Look for product longevity, including upgradability and modularity." For instance, manufacturing a new PC makes a far bigger ecological footprint than manufacturing a new RAM module to upgrade an existing one, a common upgrade that saves the user having to purchase a new computer.

Software and deployment optimization

Algorithmic efficiency Algorithm efficiency is used to describe properties of an algorithm relating to how much of various types of resources it consumes. Algorithmic efficiency can be thought of as analogous to engineering productivity for a repeating or continuous process, where the goal is to reduce resource consumption, including time to completion, to some acceptable, optimal level.

Software metrics The two most frequently encountered and measurable metrics of an algorithm are:• •

speed or running time - the time it takes for an algorithm to complete, and 'space' - the memory or 'non-volatile storage' used by the algorithm during its operation.

but also might apply to • •

transmission size - such as required bandwidth during normal operation or size of external memory- such as temporary disk space used to accomplish its task

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the size of required 'longterm' disk space required after its operation to record its output or maintain its required function during its required useful lifetime (examples: a data table , archive or a computer log) and also the performance per watt and the total energy, consumed by the chosen hardware implementation (with its System requirements, necessary auxiliary support systems including interfaces, cabling, switching, cooling and security), during its required useful lifetime.

(An extreme example of these metrics might be to consider their values in relation to a repeated simple algorithm for calculating and storing (π+n) to 50 decimal places running for say, 24 hours, either on a "pocket calculator" sized processor such as an ipod or an early mainframe operating in its own purpose-built heated or air conditioned unit.) The process of making code more efficient is known as optimization and in the case of automatic optimization (i.e. compiler optimization - performed by compilers on request or by default), usually focus on space at the cost of speed, or vice versa. There are also quite simple programming techniques and 'avoidance strategies' that can actually improve both at the same time, usually irrespective of hardware, software or language. Even the re-ordering of nested conditional statements - to put the least frequently occurring condition first (example: test patients for blood type ='AB-', before testing age > 18, since this type of blood occurs in only about 1 in 100 of the population - thereby eliminating the second test at runtime in 99% of instances), can reduce actual instruction path length,

something an optimizing compiler would almost certainly not be aware of - but which a programmer can research relatively easily even without specialist medical knowledge.

Effect of Programming paradigms The effect that different programming paradigms have on algorithmic efficiency is fiercely contested, with both supporters and antagonists for each new paradigm. Strong supporters of structured programming, such as Dijkstra for instance, who favour entirely goto-less programs are met with conflicting evidence that appears to nullify its supposed benefits. The truth is, even if the structured code itself contains no gotos, the optimizing compiler that creates the binary code almost certainly generates them (and not necessarily in the most efficient way). Similarly, OOP protagonists who claim their paradigm is superior are met with opposition from strong sceptics such as Alexander Stepanov who suggested that OOP provides a mathematically limited viewpoint and called it, "almost as much of a hoax as Artificial Intelligence" In the long term, benchmarks, using real-life examples, provide the only real hope of resolving such conflicts - at least in terms of runtime efficiency.

Optimization techniques The word optimize is normally used in relation to an existing algorithm/computer program (i.e. to improve upon completed code). In this section it is used both in the context of existing programs and also in the design and implementation of new algorithms, thereby avoiding the most common performance pitfalls. It is clearly wasteful to produce a working program - at first using an algorithm that ignores all efficiency issues - only to then have to redesign or rewrite sections of it if found to offer poor performance. Optimization can be broadly categorized into two domains:• •

Environment specific - that are essentially worthwhile only on certain platforms or particular computer languages General techniques - that apply irrespective of platform

Environment specific Optimization of algorithms frequently depends on the properties of the machine the algorithm will be executed on as well as the language the algorithm is written in and chosen data types. For example, a programmer might optimize code for time efficiency in an application for home computers (with sizable amounts of memory), but for code destined to be embedded in small, "memory-tight" devices, the programmer may have to accept that it will run more slowly, simply because of the restricted memory available for any potential software optimization.

General techniques

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Linear search such as unsorted table look-ups in particular can be very expensive in terms of execution time but can be reduced significantly through use of efficient techniques such as indexed arrays and binary searches. Using a simple linear search on first occurrence and using a cached result thereafter is an obvious compromise. Use of indexed program branching, utilizing branch tables or "threaded code" to control program flow, (rather than using multiple conditional IF statements or unoptimized CASE/SWITCH) can drastically reduce instruction path length, simultaneously reduce program size and even also make a program easier to read and more easily maintainable (in effect it becomes a 'decision table' rather than repetitive spaghetti code). Loop unrolling performed manually, or more usually by an optimizing compiler, can provide significant savings in some instances. By processing 'blocks' of several array elements at a time, individually addressed, (for example, within a While loop), much pointer arithmetic and end of loop testing can be eliminated, resulting in decreased instruction path lengths. Other Loop optimizations are also possible.

Tunnel vision There are many techniques for improving algorithms, but focusing on a single favorite technique can lead to a "tunnel vision" mentality. For example, in this X86 assembly example, the author offers loop unrolling as a reasonable technique that provides some 40% improvements to his chosen example. However, the same example would benefit significantly from both inlining and use of a trivial hash function. If they were implemented, either as alternative or complementary techniques, an even greater percentage gain might be expected. A combination of optimizations may provide ever increasing speed, but selection of the most easily implemented and most effective technique, from a large repertoire of such techniques, is desirable as a starting point.

Dependency trees and spreadsheets Spreadsheets are a 'special case' of algorithms that self-optimize by virtue of their dependency trees that are inherent in the design of spreadsheets to reduce re-calculations when a cell changes. The results of earlier calculations are effectively cached within the workbook and only updated if another cells changed value effects it directly.

Table lookup Table lookups can make many algorithms more efficient, particularly when used to bypass computations with a high time complexity. However, if a wide input range is required, they can consume significant storage resources. In cases with a sparse valid input set, hash functions can be used to provide more efficient lookup access than a full table.

Hash function algorithms

A hash function is any well-defined procedure or mathematical function which converts a large, possibly variable-sized amount of data into a small datum, usually a single integer that may serve as an index to an array. The values returned by a hash function are called hash values, hash codes, hash sums, or simply hashes. Hash functions are frequently used to speed up table lookups. The choice of a hashing function (to avoid a linear or brute force search) depends critically on the nature of the input data, and their probability distribution in the intended application.

Trivial hash function Sometimes if the datum is small enough, a "trivial hash function" can be used to effectively provide constant time searches at almost zero cost. This is particularly relevant for single byte lookups (e.g. ASCII or EBCDIC characters)

Searching strings Searching for particular text strings (for instance "tags" or keywords) in long sequences of characters potentially generates lengthy instruction paths. This includes searching for delimiters in comma separated files or similar processing which can be very simply and effectively eliminated (using declarative notation for instance). Several methods of reducing the cost for general searching have been examined and the "Boyer–Moore string search algorithm" (or Boyer–Moore–Horspool algorithm, a similar but modified version) is one solution that has been proven to give superior results to repetitive comparisons of the entire search string along the sequence.

Hot spot analyzers Special system software products known as "performance analyzers" are often available from suppliers to help diagnose "hot spots" - during actual execution of computer programs - using real or test data - they perform a Performance analysis under generally repeatable conditions. They can pinpoint sections of the program that might benefit from specifically targeted programmer optimization without necessarily spending time optimizing the rest of the code. Using program re-runs, a measure of relative improvement can then be determined to decide if the optimization was successful and by what amount. Instruction Set Simulators can be used as an alternative to measure the instruction path length at the machine code level between selected execution paths, or on the entire execution. Regardless of the type of tool used, the quantitative values obtained can be used in combination with anticipated reductions (for the targeted code) to estimate a relative or absolute overall saving. For example if 50% of the total execution time (or path length) is absorbed in a subroutine whose speed can be doubled by programmer optimization, an overall saving of around 25% might be expected (Amdahl law).

Efforts have been made at the University of California, Irvine to produce dynamic executable code using a combination of hot spot analysis and run-time program trace tree. A JIT like dynamic compiler was built by Andreas Gal and others, "in which relevant (i.e., frequently executed) control flows are ...discovered lazily during execution"

Benchmarking & competitive algorithms For new versions of software or to provide comparisons with competitive systems, benchmarks are sometimes used which assist with gauging an algorithms relative performance. If a new sort algorithm is produced for example it can be compared with its predecessors to ensure that at least it is efficient as before with known data - taking into consideration any functional improvements. Benchmarks can be used by customers when comparing various products from alternative suppliers to estimate which product will best suit their specific requirements in terms of functionality and performance. For example in the mainframe world certain proprietary sort products from independent software companies such as Syncsort compete with products from the major suppliers such as IBM for speed. Some benchmarks provide opportunities for producing an analysis comparing the relative speed of various compiled and interpreted languages for example and The Computer Language Benchmarks Game compares the performance of implementations of typical programming problems in several programming languages. (Even creating "do it yourself" benchmarks to get at least some appreciation of the relative performance of different programming languages, using a variety of user specified criteria, is quite simple to produce as this "Nine language Performance roundup" by Christopher W. Cowell-Shah demonstrates by example)

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Defining variables as integers for indexed arrays instead of floating point will result in faster execution (see above). Defining structures whose structure length is a multiple of a power of 2 (2,4,8,16 etc.), will allow the compiler to calculate array indexes by shifting a binary index by 1, 2 or more bits to the left, instead of using a multiply instruction will result in faster execution. Adding an otherwise redundant short filler variable to 'pad out' the length of a structure element to say 8 bytes when otherwise it would have been 6 or 7 bytes may reduce overall processing time by a worthwhile amount for very large arrays. Storage defined in terms of bits, when bytes would suffice, may inadvertently involve extremely long path lengths involving bitwise operations instead of more efficient single instruction 'multiple byte' copy instructions. (This does not apply to 'genuine' intentional bitwise operations - used for example instead of multiplication or division by powers of 2 or for TRUE/FALSE flags.) Unnecessary use of allocated dynamic storage when static storage would suffice, can increase the processing overhead substantially - both increasing memory requirements and the associated allocation/deallocation path length overheads for each function call.

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Excessive use of function calls for very simple functions, rather than in-line statements, can also add substantially to instruction path lengths and stack/unstack overheads. For particularly time critical systems that are not also code size sensitive, automatic or manual inline expansion can reduce path length by eliminating all the instructions that call the function and return from it. (A conceptually similar method, loop unrolling, eliminates the instructions required to set up and terminate a loop by, instead; repeating the instructions inside the loop multiple times. This of course eliminates the branch back instruction but may also increase the size of the binary file or, in the case of JIT built code, dynamic memory. Also, care must be taken with this method, that re-calculating addresses for each statement within an unwound indexed loop is not more expensive than incrementing pointers within the former loop would have been. If absolute indexes are used in the generated (or manually created) unwound code, rather than variables, the code created may actually be able to avoid generated pointer arithmetic instructions altogether, using offsets instead). Memory management Whenever memory is automatically allocated (for example in HLL programs, when calling a procedure or when issuing a system call), it is normally released (or 'freed'/ 'deallocated'/ 'deleted' ) automatically when it is no longer required thus allowing it to be re-used for another purpose immediately. Some memory management can easily be accomplished by the compiler, as in this example. However, when memory is explicitly allocated (for example in OOP when "new" is specified for an object), releasing the memory is often left to an asynchronous 'garbage collector' which does not necessarily release the memory at the earliest opportunity (as well as consuming some additional CPU resources deciding if it can be). The current trend nevertheless appears to be towards taking full advantage of this fully automated method, despite the tradeoff in efficiency because it is claimed that it makes programming easier. Some functional languages are known as 'lazy functional languages' because of the significant use of garbage collection and can consume much more memory as a result.

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Array processing may simplify programming but use of separate statements to sum different elements of the same array(s) may produce code that is not easily optimized and that requires multiple passes of the arrays that might otherwise have been processed in a single pass. It may also duplicate data if array slicing is used, leading to increased memory usage and copying overhead. In OOP, if an object is known to be immutable, it can be copied simply by making a copy of a reference to it instead of copying the entire object. Because a reference (typically only the size of a pointer) is usually much smaller than the object itself, this results in memory savings and a boost in execution speed.

Readability, trade offs and trends One must be careful, in the pursuit of good coding style, not to over-emphasize efficiency. Frequently, a clean, readable and 'usable' design is much more important than

a fast, efficient design that is hard to understand. There are exceptions to this 'rule' (such as embedded systems, where space is tight, and processing power minimal) but these are rarer than one might expect. However, increasingly, for many 'time critical' applications such as air line reservation systems, point-of-sale applications, ATMs (cash-point machines), Airline Guidance systems, Collision avoidance systems and numerous modern web based applications operating in a real-time environment where speed of response is fundamental - there is little alternative.

Determining if optimization is worthwhile The essential criteria for using optimized code are of course dependent upon the expected use of the algorithm. If it is a new algorithm and is going to be in use for many years and speed is relevant, it is worth spending some time designing the code to be as efficient as possible from the outset. If an existing algorithm is proving to be too slow or memory is becoming an issue, clearly something must be done to improve it. For the average application, or for one-off applications, avoiding inefficient coding techniques and encouraging the compiler to optimize where possible may be sufficient. One simple way (at least for mathematicians) to determine whether an optimization is worthwhile is as follows: Let the original time and space requirements (generally in BigO notation) of the algorithm be O1 and O2. Let the new code require N1 and N2 time and space respectively. If N1N2 < O1O2, the optimization should be carried out. However, as mentioned above, this may not always be true.

Implications for algorithmic efficiency A recent report, published in December 2007, from Global Action Plan, a UK-based environmental organisation found that computer servers are "at least as great a threat to the climate as SUVs or the global aviation industry" drawing attention to the carbon footprint of the IT industry in the UK. According to an Environmental Research Letters report published in September 2008, "Total power used by information technology equipment in data centers represented about 0.5% of world electricity consumption in 2005. When cooling and auxiliary infrastructure are included, that figure is about 1%. The total data center power demand in 2005 is equivalent (in capacity terms) to about seventeen 1000 MW power plants for the world." Some media reports claim that performing two Google searches from a desktop computer can generate about the same amount of carbon dioxide as boiling a kettle for a cup of tea, according to new research; however, the factual accuracy of this comparison is disputed, and the author of the study in question asserts that the two-searches-tea-kettle statistic is a misreading of his work.

Greentouch, a recently established consortium of leading Information and Communications Technology (ICT) industry, academic and non-governmental research experts, has set itself the mission of reducing reduce energy consumption per user by a factor of 1000 from current levels. "A thousand-fold reduction is roughly equivalent to being able to power the world’s communications networks, including the Internet, for three years using the same amount of energy that it currently takes to run them for a single day". The first meeting in February 2010 will establish the organization’s five-year plan, first year deliverables and member roles and responsibilities. Intellectual property issues will be addressed and defined in the forum’s initial planning meetings. The conditions for research and the results of that research will be high priority for discussion in the initial phase of the research forum’s development. Computers having become increasingly more powerful over the past few decades, emphasis was on a 'brute force' mentality. This may have to be reconsidered in the light of these reports and more effort placed in future on reducing carbon footprints through optimization. It is a timely reminder that algorithmic efficiency is just another aspect of the more general thermodynamic efficiency. The genuine economic benefits of an optimized algorithm are, in any case, that more processing can be done for the same cost or that useful results can be shown in a more timely manner and ultimately, acted upon sooner.

Criticism of the current state of programming •

David May FRS a British computer scientist and currently Professor of Computer Science at University of Bristol and founder and CTO of XMOS Semiconductor, believes one of the problems is that there is a reliance on Moore's law to solve inefficiencies. He has advanced an 'alternative' to Moore's law (May's law) stated as follows: Software efficiency halves every 18 months, compensating Moore's Law He goes on to state In ubiquitous systems, halving the instructions executed can double the battery life and big data sets bring big opportunities for better software and algorithms: Reducing the number of operations from N x N to N x log(N) has a dramatic effect when N is large... for N = 30 billion, this change is as good as 50 years of technology improvements

•

Software author Adam N. Rosenburg in his blog "The failure of the Digital computer", has described the current state of programming as nearing the "Software event horizon", (alluding to the fictitious "shoe event horizon" described by Douglas Adams in his Hitchhiker's Guide to the Galaxy book ). He estimates there has been a 70 dB factor loss of productivity or "99.99999 percent, of its ability to deliver the goods", since the 1980s - "When Arthur C. Clarke compared the reality of computing in 2001 to the computer HAL in his book

•

2001: A Space Odyssey, he pointed out how wonderfully small and powerful computers were but how disappointing computer programming had become". Conrad Weisert gives examples, some of which were published in ACM SIGPLAN (Special Interest Group on Programming Languages) Notices, December, 1995 in: "Atrocious Programming Thrives"

Resource allocation Resource allocation is used to assign the available resources in an economic way. It is part of resource management. In project management, resource allocation is the scheduling of activities and the resources required by those activities while taking into consideration both the resource availability and the project time.

Strategic planning In strategic planning, resource allocation is a plan for using available resources, for example human resources, especially in the near term, to achieve goals for the future. It is the process of allocating resources among the various projects or business units. The plan has two parts: Firstly, there is the basic allocation decision and secondly there are contingency mechanisms. The basic allocation decision is the choice of which items to fund in the plan, and what level of funding it should receive, and which to leave unfunded: the resources are allocated to some items, not to others. There are two contingency mechanisms. There is a priority ranking of items excluded from the plan, showing which items to fund if more resources should become available; and there is a priority ranking of some items included in the plan, showing which items should be sacrificed if total funding must be reduced.

Resource Leveling The main objective is to smooth resources requirements by shifting slack jobs beyond periods of peak requirements. Some of the methods essentially replicate what a human scheduler would do if he had enough time; others make use of unusual devices or procedures designed especially for the computer. They of course depend for their success on the speed and capabilities of electronic computers.

Algorithms Resource allocation may be decided by using computer programs applied to a specific domain to automatically and dynamically distribute resources to applicants. It may be considered as a specialized case of automatic scheduling.

This is especially common in electronic devices dedicated to routing and communication. For example, channel allocation in wireless communication may be decided by a base transceiver station using an appropriate algorithm. One class of resource allocation algorithms is the auction class, whereby applicants bid for the best resource(s) according to their balance of "money", as in a online auction business model. In one paper on CPU time slice allocation an auction algorithm is compared to proportional share scheduling. Algorithms can also be used to route data to data centers where electricity is less expensive. Researchers from MIT, Carnegie Mellon University, and Akamai have tested an energy allocation algorithm that successfully routes traffic to the location with the cheapest energy costs. The researchers project up to a 40 percent savings on energy costs if their proposed algorithm were to be deployed. Strictly speaking, this approach does not actually reduce the amount of energy being used; it only reduces the cost to the company using it. However, a similar strategy could be used to direct traffic to rely on energy that is produced in a more environmentally friendly or efficient way. A similar approach has also been used to cut energy usage by routing traffic away from data centers experiencing warm weather; this allows computers to be shut down to avoid using air conditioning. Larger server centers are sometimes located where energy and land are inexpensive and readily available. Local availability of renewable energy, climate that allows outside air to be used for cooling, or locating them where the heat they produce may be used for other purposes could be factors in green siting decisions.

Virtualization Computer virtualization refers to the abstraction of computer resources, such as the process of running two or more logical computer systems on one set of physical hardware. The concept originated with the IBM mainframe operating systems of the 1960s, but was commercialized for x86-compatible computers only in the 1990s. With virtualization, a system administrator could combine several physical systems into virtual machines on one single, powerful system, thereby unplugging the original hardware and reducing power and cooling consumption. Virtualization can assist in distributing work so that servers are either busy, or put in a low power sleep state. Several commercial companies and open-source projects now offer software packages to enable a transition to virtual computing. Intel Corporation and AMD have also built proprietary virtualization enhancements to the x86 instruction set into each of their CPU product lines, in order to facilitate virtualized computing.

Terminal servers Terminal servers have also been used in green computing. When using the system, users at a terminal connect to a central server; all of the actual computing is done on the server,

but the end user experiences the operating system on the terminal. These can be combined with thin clients, which use up to 1/8 the amount of energy of a normal workstation, resulting in a decrease of energy costs and consumption. There has been an increase in using terminal services with thin clients to create virtual labs. Examples of terminal server software include Terminal Services for Windows and the Linux Terminal Server Project (LTSP) for the Linux operating system.

Power management The Advanced Configuration and Power Interface (ACPI), an open industry standard, allows an operating system to directly control the power-saving aspects of its underlying hardware. This allows a system to automatically turn off components such as monitors and hard drives after set periods of inactivity. In addition, a system may hibernate, where most components (including the CPU and the system RAM) are turned off. ACPI is a successor to an earlier Intel-Microsoft standard called Advanced Power Management, which allows a computer's BIOS to control power management functions. Some programs allow the user to manually adjust the voltages supplied to the CPU, which reduces both the amount of heat produced and electricity consumed. This process is called undervolting. Some CPUs can automatically undervolt the processor depending on the workload; this technology is called "SpeedStep" on Intel processors, "PowerNow!"/"Cool'n'Quiet" on AMD chips, LongHaul on VIA CPUs, and LongRun with Transmeta processors.

Data Center Power Data Center, which has been criticized for its extra ordinary high energy demand, is a primary focus for proponents of green computing. . The federal government has set a minimum 10% reduction target for data center energy usage by 2011. . With the aid of a self-styled ultra efficient evaporative cooling technology, Google Inc. has been able to reduce its energy consumption to 50% of that of the industry average. .

Operating system support The dominant desktop operating system, Microsoft Windows, has included limited PC power management features since Windows 95. These initially provided for stand-by (suspend-to-RAM) and a monitor low power state. Further iterations of Windows added hibernate (suspend-to-disk) and support for the ACPI standard. Windows 2000 was the first NT based operating system to include power management. This required major changes to the underlying operating system architecture and a new hardware driver model. Windows 2000 also introduced Group Policy, a technology which allowed administrators to centrally configure most Windows features. However, power management was not one of those features. This is probably because the power management settings design relied upon a connected set of per-user and per-machine binary registry values, effectively leaving it up to each user to configure their own power management settings.

This approach, which is not compatible with Windows Group Policy, was repeated in Windows XP. The reasons for this design decision by Microsoft are not known, and it has resulted in heavy criticism Microsoft significantly improved this in Windows Vista by redesigning the power management system to allow basic configuration by Group Policy. The support offered is limited to a single per-computer policy. The most recent release, Windows 7 retains these limitations but does include refinements for more efficient user of operating system timers, processor power management, and display panel brightness. The most significant change in Windows 7 is in the user experience. The prominence of the default High Performance power plan has been reduced with the aim of encouraging users to save power. There is a significant market in third-party PC power management software offering features beyond those present in the Windows operating system . Most products offer Active Directory integration and per-user/per-machine settings with the more advanced offering multiple power plans, scheduled power plans, anti-insomnia features and enterprise power usage reporting.

Power supply Desktop computer power supplies (PSUs) are generally 70–75% efficient, dissipating the remaining energy as heat. An industry initiative called 80 PLUS certifies PSUs that are at least 80% efficient; typically these models are drop-in replacements for older, less efficient PSUs of the same form factor. As of July 20, 2007, all new Energy Star 4.0certified desktop PSUs must be at least 80% efficient.

Storage Smaller form factor (e.g. 2.5 inch) hard disk drives often consume less power per gigabyte than physically larger drives. Unlike hard disk drives, solid-state drives store data in flash memory or DRAM. With no moving parts, power consumption may be reduced somewhat for low capacity flash based devices. In a recent case study, Fusion-io, manufacturers of the world's fastest Solid State Storage devices, managed to reduce the carbon footprint and operating costs of MySpace data centers by 80% while increasing performance speeds beyond that which had been attainable via multiple hard disk drives in Raid 0. In response, MySpace was able to permanently retire several of their servers, including all their heavy-load servers, further reducing their carbon footprint. As hard drive prices have fallen, storage farms have tended to increase in capacity to make more data available online. This includes archival and backup data that would formerly have been saved on tape or other offline storage. The increase in online storage has increased power consumption. Reducing the power consumed by large storage arrays, while still providing the benefits of online storage, is a subject of ongoing research.

Video card A fast GPU may be the largest power consumer in a computer. Energy efficient display options include: • • •

No video card - use a shared terminal, shared thin client, or desktop sharing software if display required. Use motherboard video output - typically low 3D performance and low power. Select a GPU based on low idle power, average wattage or performance per watt.

Display CRT monitors typically use more power than LCD monitors. They also contain significant amounts of lead. LCD monitors typically use a cold-cathode fluorescent bulb to provide light for the display. Some newer displays use an array of light-emitting diodes (LEDs) in place of the fluorescent bulb, which reduces the amount of electricity used by the display. Fluorescent back-lights also contain mercury, whereas LED back-lights do not.

Materials recycling Recycling computing equipment can keep harmful materials such as lead, mercury, and hexavalent chromium out of landfills, and can also replace equipment that otherwise would need to be manufactured, saving further energy and emissions. Computer systems that have outlived their particular function can be re-purposed, or donated to various charities and non-profit organizations. However, many charities have recently imposed minimum system requirements for donated equipment. Additionally, parts from outdated systems may be salvaged and recycled through certain retail outlets and municipal or private recycling centers. Computing supplies, such as printer cartridges, paper, and batteries may be recycled as well. A drawback to many of these schemes is that computers gathered through recycling drives are often shipped to developing countries where environmental standards are less strict than in North America and Europe. The Silicon Valley Toxics Coalition estimates that 80% of the post-consumer e-waste collected for recycling is shipped abroad to countries such as China and Pakistan. The recycling of old computers raises an important privacy issue. The old storage devices still hold private information, such as emails, passwords and credit card numbers, which can be recovered simply by someone using software that is available freely on the Internet. Deletion of a file does not actually remove the file from the hard drive. Before recycling a computer, users should remove the hard drive, or hard drives if there is more than one, and physically destroy it or store it somewhere safe. There are some authorized hardware recycling companies to whom the computer may be given for recycling, and they typically sign a non-disclosure agreement.

Telecommuting Teleconferencing and telepresence technologies are often implemented in green computing initiatives. The advantages are many; increased worker satisfaction, reduction of greenhouse gas emissions related to travel, and increased profit margins as a result of lower overhead costs for office space, heat, lighting, etc. The savings are significant; the average annual energy consumption for U.S. office buildings is over 23 kilowatt hours per square foot, with heat, air conditioning and lighting accounting for 70% of all energy consumed. Other related initiatives, such as hotelling, reduce the square footage per employee as workers reserve space only when they need it. Many types of jobs, such as sales, consulting, and field service, integrate well with this technique. Voice over IP (VoIP) reduces the telephony wiring infrastructure by sharing the existing Ethernet copper. VoIP and phone extension mobility also made hot desking more practical.

Education and Certification There are a number of colleges that have individual green computing courses and institutions that offer certifications which indirectly encourage green computing techniques. Full fledged green computing degree programs and certifications are currently in their infancy but should grow over time as their definition and importance mature.

Green Computing Degree Programs Degree programs that provide training in a range of information technology concentrations along with sustainable strategies in an effort to educate students how to build and maintain systems while reducing it's negative impact on the environment. • •

Metropolitan Community College (Omaha) has an associates degree available in managing green data centers. Leeds Metropolitan University in the United Kingdom offers a year long graduate course in Green Computing.

Green computing certifications Some certifications demonstrate that an individual has specific green computing knowledge, including: •

CompTIA Strata Green IT is designed for IT managers to show that they have good knowledge of green IT practices and methods and why it is important to incorporate them into an organization.

•

Information Systems Examination Board (ISEB) Foundation Certificate in Green IT is appropriate for showing an overall understanding and awareness of green computing and where its implementation can be beneficial.

Chapter- 6

E-Cycling & Mobile Phone Recycling

E-Cycling The term e-cycling refers to the process of recycling the components or metals contained in used or discarded electronic equipment, otherwise known as electronic waste (ewaste). E-cyclable items include, but are not limited to: televisions, computers, microwave ovens, vacuum cleaners, telephones and cellular phones, stereos, and VCRs and DVDs. The need for e-cycling facilities has been increasing recently due to technology’s rapid rate of obsolescence.

Pros of e-cycling Some people support e-cycling for ethical reasons. This stance can be traced to the fact that much of e-waste is dumped in developing countries, and people disagree with the environmental and human health hazards that this presents. As an example, groundwater has become so polluted in areas surrounding China’s landfills that water must be shipped in from 18 miles away. By this token, e-cycling helps the environment by avoiding pollution and being a sustainable alternative to disposing of e-waste in landfills. Another benefit to e-cycling is that valuable materials are retrieved from e-waste that otherwise would have been thrown out. Supporters argue that e-cycling saves taxpayers money, as the financial responsibility would be shifted from the taxpayer to the manufacturers. In taking part in e-cycling, companies would be motivated to use fewer materials in the production process, create longer lasting products, and implement safer, more efficient recycling systems.

Criticisms of e-cycling The critics of e-cycling are just as vocal as its advocates. According to the Reason Foundation, e-cycling will only raise the product and waste management costs of e-waste for consumers and limit innovation on the part of high-tech companies. They also believe that e-cycling facilities could unintentionally cause great harm to the environment.

Additionally, critics claim that e-waste doesn’t occupy a significant portion of total waste. According to a European study, only 4% of waste is electronic. Another opposition to e-cycling is that many problems are posed in disassembly: the process is costly and dangerous because of the heavy metals of which the electronic products are composed, and as little as 1-5% of the original cost of materials can be retrieved. A final problem that people find is that identity fraud is all too common in regards to the disposal of electronic products.

Where does e-waste really go? A hefty criticism often lobbed at common recyclers is that people think that they are recycling their electronic waste, when in reality it is actually being exported to developing countries such as China, India, and Nigeria. It has been estimated that 90% of e-waste is not being recycled as promised. For instance, at free recycling drives, "recyclers" may not be staying true to their word but are selling e-waste overseas or to parts brokers. Studies indicate that 50-80% of the 300,000-400,000 tons of e-waste is being sent overseas, and that approximately 2 million tons per year go to U.S. landfills. Although not possible in all circumstances, the best way to e-cycle is to upcycle your ewaste.

What's happening now: Policy issues and current efforts Currently, pieces of government legislation and a number of grassroots efforts have contributed to the growth of e-cycling. The Electronic Waste Recycling Act was passed in California in 2003 . It requires that consumers pay an extra fee for certain types of electronics, and the collected money is then redistributed to recycling companies that are qualified to properly recycle these products. It is the only state that legislates against ewaste through this kind of consumer fee, the other states' efforts focus on producer responsibility laws. As of September, 2006, Dell developed the nation’s first completely-free recycling program, furthering the responsibilities that manufacturers are taking for e-cycling. Additional manufacturers and retailers such as Best Buy, Sony, and Samsung have also set up recycling programs. Another step being taken is the recyclers’ pledge of true stewardship, sponsored by the Computer TakeBack Campaign. It has been signed by numerous recyclers promising to recycle responsibly. Grassroots efforts have also played a big part in this issue, as they and other community organizations are being formed to help responsibly recycle e-waste. Other grassroots campaigns are Basel, the Computer TakeBack Campaign (cocoordinated by the Grassroots Recycling Network), and the Silicon Valley Toxics Coalition.

Many people believe that the U.S. should be following the European Union model in regards to its management of e-waste. In this program, a directive forces manufacturers to take responsibility for e-cycling; it also demands manufacturers' mandatory take-back and places bans on exporting e-waste to developing countries. Another longer-term solution is for computers to be composed of less dangerous products. These communities can connect with each other by means of various websites.

Mobile phone recycling

Scrapped mobile phones. The ubiquitous mobile phone is able to be recycled at the end of its life. Rapid technology change, low initial cost, and even planned obsolescence have resulted in a fast-growing surplus, which contributes to the increasing amount of electronic waste around the globe. Recyclers consider electronic waste a "rapidly expanding" issue. In the United States, an estimated 70% of heavy metals in landfills comes from discarded electronics, while electronic waste represents only 2% of America's trash in landfills. While some recycle, 7% of mobile phone owners still throw away their old phones. Mobile phones are "considered hazardous waste" in California; many chemicals in such

phones leach from landfills into the groundwater system. Environmental advocacy group Greenpeace claims that the soldering of the iPhone battery into its handset hinders its being recycled. It also states that its scientists found toxic phthalates on iPhone cables, and it holds that this contravenes California's Proposition 65, which requires warning labels on products exposing consumers to phthalates. Because the United States has not ratified the Basel Convention or its Ban Amendment, and has no domestic laws forbidding the export of toxic waste, the Basel Action Network estimates that about 80% of the electronic waste directed to recycling in the U.S. does not get recycled there at all, but is put on container ships and sent to countries such as China. Guiyu in the Shantou region of China, and Delhi and Bangalore in India, have electronic waste processing areas.

Regulation The regulation governing mobile phones in the European Union is the Waste Electrical and Electronic Equipment Directive, implemented in 2003 (WEEE Directive, 2002/96/EC). It was intended to make equipment manufacturers financially or physically responsible for their equipment at the end of its life, under a policy known as extended producer responsibility (EPR). In Switzerland, an early electronic waste recycler, it is possible to return surplus mobile phones to the sales points and other collection points free of charge. SWICO is the established Producer Responsibility Organisation. The main United States law governing solid waste is the Resource Conservation and Recovery Act of 1976, which covers only cathode ray tubes. No federal standard covering smartphones or electronic waste has arisen, although the U.S. Congress considers bills like the National Computer Recycling Act introduced by Congressman Mike Thompson (D-CA), and state regulations differ widely.

Chapter- 7

Battery Recycling

Battery recycling is a recycling activity that aims to reduce the number of batteries being disposed as municipal solid waste. It is widely promoted by people concerned about contamination, particularly of soil contamination and water pollution, by the addition of heavy metals and other toxic chemicals from batteries.

Battery recycling by type Most types of batteries can be recycled. However, some batteries are recycled more readily than others, such as lead-acid automotive batteries (nearly 90% are recycled) and button cells (because of the value and toxicity of their chemicals). Other types, such as alkaline and rechargeable, can also be recycled.

Lead-acid batteries These batteries include but are not limited to: car batteries, golf cart batteries, UPS batteries, industrial fork-lift batteries, motorcycle batteries, and commercial batteries. These can be regular lead acid, sealed lead acid, gel type, or absorbent glass mat (AGM) batteries.These are recycled by grinding them, neutralizing the acid, and separating the polymers from the lead. The recovered materials are used in a variety of applications, including new batteries.

Recycling the lead from batteries.

Silver oxide batteries Used most frequently in watches, toys and some medical devices, silver oxide batteries contain a small amount of mercury. In most jurisdictions there exists legislation to regulate the appropriate handling and disposal of silver oxide batteries to reduce discharge of mercury to the environment. Silver oxide batteries can be recycled to recover the mercury.

Battery recycling by location

4.5-Volt, D, C, AA, AAA, 9-Volt, SR41/AG3, SR44/AG13 cells are all recyclble in most countries.

Several sizes of button and coin cell. 2 9v batteries were added as a size comparison.

European Union In 2006 the EU passed the Battery Directive of which one of the aims is a higher rate of battery recycling. The EU directive states that at least 25% of all the EU’s used batteries must be collected by 2012, and rising to no less than 45% by 2016, of which, that at least 50% of them must be recycled. Recycling rate for 2002 Country Belgium 59% Sweden 55% Austria 44% Germany 39% The Netherlands 32% France 16%

United Kingdom Household batteries can be recycled in United Kingdom at council recycling sites as well as at commercial stores (e.g. Dixons, Currys, The Link and PC World ). An EU directive on batteries that came into force in 2009 means producers must pay for the collection, treatment and recycling of batteries. From 1 February 2010 batteries can be recycled anywhere the Be Positive sign appears. Shops and online retailers that sell more than 32 kilograms of batteries a year must offer facilities to recycle batteries. This is equivalent to one pack of 4 AA batteries a day.

Shops which sell this amount must by law provide recycling facilities as of 1 February 2010. Moixa Energy, which launched the 'USBCELL re-usable USB rechargeable battery' category, to help reduce battery landfill has set up 'savebatterywaste.com' as a resource site, map of UK battery collection locations, as part of awareness on recycling. In Wales, England and Scotland a very small number of Argos, Homebase, B&Q, and Tesco stores are taking batteries back in store. A UK scheme allows household batteries that have been securely wrapped in a plastic bag and then inserted inside a Jiffy bag or a strong box to posted free of charge. There is a list of these Freepost addresses for Tesco, EveryReady, Energiser, Duracell, Sainsburys and other major producers and supermarkets at 'Green Batteries' Freepost Recycling. And a UK Battery Recycling Guide for Business is available at 'UK only recycles 4% of household batteries.

North America The rechargeable battery industry has formed the Rechargeable Battery Recycling Corporation which operates a free battery recycling program, Call2Recycle, throughout the United States and Canada. The program will provide businesses with prepaid shipping containers for rechargeable batteries of all types while consumers can drop off batteries at numerous participating collection centers. The organization claims that no component of any recycled battery eventually reaches a landfill.

Automotive battery recycling

A typical automotive battery. The lead of lead-acid battery can be recycled. Elemental lead is toxic and should therefore be kept out of the waste stream.

Recycling by country Many cities offer battery recycling services for lead-acid batteries. In some jurisdictions, including US states and Canadian Provinces, a refundable deposit is paid on batteries.

European Union

The 2006 Battery Directive regulates the manufacture and disposal of batteries in the European Union.

United Kingdom The UK battery regulations were developed as a result of the EU Battery Directive.

United States In the United States, about 97% of lead from used batteries is reclaimed for recycling. In several U.S. states purchasers of new lead-acid batteries are charged a small deposit fee, refunded when the replaced battery is returned. This encourages recycling of old batteries instead of abandonment or disposal with household waste. Businesses which sell new car batteries may also collect used batteries (and may be required to do so by law) for recycling. Some businesses will accept old batteries on a "walk-in" basis (not in exchange for a new battery). Most battery shops and recycling centers will pay for scrap batteries. This can be a lucrative business, enticing especially to risk-takers because of the wild fluctuations in the value of scrap lead that can occur literally overnight. When lead prices go up, scrap batteries can become targets for thieves.

Call2Recycle

Call2Recycle is a non-profit recycling program for rechargeable batteries in the United States and Canada. The program has a network of 30,000 sites throughout the U.S. and Canada where rechargeable batteries and cell phones can be brought for recycling, free of charge. Rechargeable batteries can contain metals that could potentially harm the environment, so recycling them minimizes their environmental impact while also reclaiming metals that can be used to make new materials.

History The program launched in the U.S. in 1996 (1997 in Canada) as Charge Up to Recycle! It was re-named Call2Recycle in 2004 to reflect the program’s expanded focus to also collect cell phones, which contain rechargeable batteries.

Call2Recycle is operated by the non-profit Rechargeable Battery Recycling Corporation (RBRC). According to it mission, Call2Recycle “promotes eco-safe reclamation and recycling of rechargeable batteries and cell phones in an effort to advance green business practices and environmental sustainability." In September 2008, Carl Smith was appointed as president and CEO of RBRC.

Program: How it works Call2Recycle conducts a national public education campaign to generate awareness of rechargeable battery recycling and encourage participation. As of early 2009, these efforts have resulted in the collection of 50 million pounds of rechargeable batteries throughout the U.S. and Canada. In 2008, collections increased by nearly ten percent, totaling more than 6.9 million pounds . As a true product stewardship program, Call2Recycle does not charge any fee to recycle rechargeable batteries or cell phones. Anyone can deposit these products inside branded collection boxes available at tens of thousands of local retail, business and community collection sites . Likewise, it is completely free of charge for businesses, public agencies (i.e. hospital, police department or fire department), municipalities or retailers who sell cell phones and/or rechargeable batteries and battery-powered products to enroll as collection sites. Call2Recycle collections are available at many national retailers, including: In the U.S.: AT&T, Best Buy, Black & Decker, DeWalt, The Home Depot, Lowe's, Milwaukee Electric Tool, Office Depot, Orchard Supply Hardware, Porter-Cable Service Centers, RadioShack, Remington Product Company, Ritz Camera, Sears, Staples, Target, US Cellular In Canada: Batteries Experts, Battery Plus, Bell World, Black & Decker, Canadian Tire, FIDO, The Home Depot, Home Hardware, London Drugs, Makita Factory Service Centers, Personal Edge/Centre du Rasoir, Sears, The Sony Store, Staples, Telus Mobility, Zellers.= Call2Recycle accepts the following battery chemistries: nickel cadmium, nickel metal hydride, nickel zinc, lithium ion and small sealed lead acid; which are found in many cordless electronic products, such as – but not limited to – cell phones, cordless phones, laptop computers, cordless power tools, camcorders, digital cameras, PDAs, two-way radios, remote control toys, electric toothbrushes and electric razors.

Environmental concerns Rechargeable batteries can contain metals that could potentially harm the environment if disposed of in a landfill or incinerator. Recycling them creates new, reused materials (i.e.

reclaimed metals) that can be used to make other products, while also preventing these metals from leeching into the ground over time as they decompose.

Government support In May 1996, Congress enacted federal legislation known as the Mercury-Containing and Rechargeable Battery Management Act to phase out the use of mercury in batteries and encourage the establishment of free and accessible collection and recycling programs for nickel cadmium and small-sealed lead acid batteries. In addition to the federal law, nine states (California, Connecticut, Florida, Iowa, Maine, Maryland, Minnesota, New Jersey and Vermont) and New York City currently require that free rechargeable battery collection and recycling programs are made available to consumers as a requirement of selling rechargeable batteries in the state.

Recycling process Call2Recycle collection boxes are sent to the INMETCO recycling plant in Ellwood City, Pennsylvania where the materials are separated and recycled to reclaim reusable metals, so that none of the broken down material makes its way into landfills. The cadmium is used to make new batteries, while the nickel and iron are used to make stainless steel products such as silverware. Cobalt and lead are also reclaimed. Cell phones collected through the program are recycled or refurbished and resold when possible with a portion of the proceeds benefiting select charities.

Rechargeable batteries Chemistries Typical rechargeable battery chemistries include lead acid, lithium ion, nickel cadmium, nickel metal hydride, nickel zinc and zinc air.

Household products Rechargeable batteries are found in many commonly used electronic products such as cell phones, mp3 players, cordless phones, laptop computers, cordless power tools, camcorders, digital cameras, PDAs, portable printers, remote control toys, electric toothbrushes and electric razors.

Special-use products Rechargeable batteries are used to power barcode readers, police radar guns, two-way radios, emergency medical and rescue equipment, portable heart monitors, defibrillators,

vital sign analyzers, life support machinery, x-ray machines, wheelchairs, medical beds and medical crash carts.

Battery life Most rechargeable batteries can be recharged up to 1,000 times. Depending on frequency of use, proper handling and charging, a rechargeable battery can last between 2–5 years. To maximize battery life: • • • •

Follow the charging guidelines provided by the manufacturer, as each individual product has a specific initial battery charging time. Never return a fully charged battery to the charger for an extra boost. This will shorten the life of the battery. Let a discharged battery cool to room temperature before recharging. Recharge batteries only when they are near to fully discharged.

Usage Americans use an average of six wireless products in their day-to-day lives and more than 16 percent of consumers own and use ten or more wireless products. The average American cell phone user has a total of 3 or more cell phones in their possession. More than 43 percent of American cell phone users replace their cell phones about every two years and roughly 20 percent replace their cell phones annually However when a consumer replaces the rechargeable batteries in these products, 61 percent either throw away or hoard the batteries no longer in use.